JRE MMA Show #177 - Protect Ya Neck

TL;DR

Joe Rogan, Bas Rutten, and guests discuss MMA fights, fighter careers, scoring controversies, and Tommy Lee's proposed celebrity boxing match against Kid Rock.

Key Points

• 1.Tommy Lee once seriously wanted to fight Kid Rock on pay-per-view. After Kid Rock sucker-punched Tommy at an MTV Awards event over Pamela Anderson, Tommy asked Joe to help train him and his management actually called Kid Rock's team to arrange the fight.
• 2.Kid Rock's management killed the celebrity fight by citing career risk. The reported response was that whoever loses the fight would be 'ruined for life,' ending negotiations since both had tough rock-and-roll images to protect.
• 3.BJ Penn is considered the greatest 155-pound fighter of all time in his prime window. He was described as a 'human Wolverine' who trained with the Marinoviches, achieving incredible conditioning and flexibility including double lotus with no hands.
• 4.BJ Penn's decline was attributed to lifestyle, not lack of talent. As 'king of Hawaii' and a major Vegas star during his championship run, Penn struggled to maintain brutal Marinovich training camps due to partying and an abundance of friends.
• 5.Diego Sanchez was a prime monster on The Ultimate Fighter before his later decline. He was described as an 'audio animal' who beat Kenny Florian convincingly, though his later career was marred by the controversial trainer Joshua Fabia.
• 6.The panel criticized MMA's 10-point scoring system as stolen from boxing and deeply flawed. A dominant 70-30 round and a razor-thin 51-49 round both score the same 10-9, failing to reflect the actual damage and control differential.
• 7.Steel cups are legal in MMA yet almost no fighters wear them, which the panel finds absurd. DC wore one every fight, effectively bringing metal into the cage — the panel argued the UFC should mandate proper compression-style cups like Diamond MMA.
• 8.Aljamain Sterling is underrated and could be a two-time double-division champion. The panel argued he's essentially undefeated at 145 lbs, praised his elite back-takes, and said Longo believes fans have seen only 20% of his stand-up capability.
• 9.Sterling's loss to Sean O'Malley was partly due to a forced quick turnaround he didn't want. He agreed partly expecting big pay-per-view numbers from O'Malley's popularity, but was disappointed when the numbers came in lower than anticipated.
• 10.George St-Pierre was cited as a top all-time great that newer fans don't appreciate. The panel noted GSP's seamless grappling-striking integration, Firas Zahabi's coaching role, and his dominant performance against Jon Fitch as evidence of his terrifying prime.
• 11.The Netflix MMA card featuring Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano was previewed with skepticism about Carano. A video of Carano hitting pads with John Wood reportedly looked mechanically poor, and the panel predicted a round-one submission victory for Rousey.
• 12.Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry in a five-round fight was called a guaranteed dog fight. The panel predicted Diaz's jiu-jitsu would eventually be too much, but acknowledged five rounds made it an extraordinary matchup on the Netflix card.
• 13.Game of Thrones was identified as an unintentionally feminist series. Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark, Sansa, Brienne of Tarth, and Daenerys were all cited as the show's most powerful characters, yet it never felt preachy or forced.
• 14.The new HBO show 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' was highly praised as better than House of the Dragon. Based on George R.R. Martin's Duncan the Tall graphic novels, the six half-hour episodes feature a straightforward heroic protagonist in a trial-by-seven storyline.
• 15.Loren Larkin was highlighted for an elite striking performance against Neil Magny featuring unique oblique kicks to the ribcage. The panel noted Larkin threw kicks from a hip position nobody else uses, eventually stopping Magny in what was described as one of his best performances.