UFC commentator Joe Rogan shares his thoughts on how to fix MMA Judging

By Cole Shelton - June 7, 2022

Joe Rogan has given his thoughts on how to fix MMA judging and it surprised many.

Joe Rogan

Rogan, the longtime UFC commentator, was joined by Aljamain Sterling when the pair discussed MMA judging and how to fix it. MMA judging has of course been a hot topic in recent weeks, as there have been several controversial scorecards as of late. Rogan’s idea is to award fighters for doing more damage, which is exactly what the current rules state.

“Maybe there’s a way to score it like you would give points for moments in fights where someone either did damage or someone had control, but control was not worth as much as damage,” Rogan said on his podcast (h/t MMAJunkie). “Because you can survive control unscathed. Just because someone has you down maybe in half-guard, and you’re just clinching and controlling, you can survive that for a couple minutes sometimes, and nothing happens. Even though the person’s in control of you, it’s not that big of a deal. But then damage: How much more is damage worth? Like if you see the person gets wobbled or you see like a big, impactful kick, you’re like, ‘Wow, that was a significant moment in the fight. So that would be worth more.’”

It is interesting to hear Joe Rogan’s comments, given as Sean Sheehan says, those same “changes” were already made in 2016. Under the new scoring criteria, damage is the top category to score fights on and holds more weight than control or any other criteria.

However, Rogan’s point is still worth talking about as we have seen fighters that use control and not do damage win rounds and fights. Along with that, there’s no question talking about judging and scoring fights will not disappear anytime soon as long as there are controversial scorecards to be had.

What do you make of Joe Rogan’s idea on how to fix MMA judging?


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Joe Rogan UFC