The Joe Rogan Experience

JRE MMA Show #60 with Forrest Griffin, Clint Wattenberg & Dr. Duncan French

Joe is joined by the Vice President of Performance Duncan French, Vice President of Fighter Relations Forrest Griffin, & the Director of Sports Nutrition Clint Wattenberg at the UFC's Performance Institute.

Joe RoganhostForrest GriffinguestDr. Duncan FrenchguestClint Wattenbergguest

Apr 2, 20191h 49mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Inside UFC’s Performance Institute: Science, Recovery, And Safer Weight Cuts

Joe Rogan speaks with Forrest Griffin, Clint Wattenberg, and Dr. Duncan French about the UFC Performance Institute (PI), a state-of-the-art facility built to optimize fighter performance, health, and longevity.
They explain the PI’s philosophy: individualized, science-driven support in strength and conditioning, nutrition, sports science, and physical therapy—without getting involved in game-planning or technique.
The conversation dives into technologies like OmegaWave, force plates, recovery protocols, and advanced nutrition planning, plus how the PI is collecting data across the roster to benchmark performance and guide safer weight cutting.
They also explore broader issues: the evolution of MMA, the role of wrestling, the dangers and politics of weight cutting, the challenge of influencing athletic commissions, and plans for global expansion, including a developmental institute in Shanghai.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

MMA preparation must be individualized, not one-size-fits-all.

The PI treats every fighter as a unique case, assessing physiology, training response, and injury history to tailor strength, conditioning, nutrition, and recovery rather than imposing a generic MMA program.

Recovery is as strategically important as hard training.

Tools like OmegaWave, force plates, hot/cold immersion, compression, and manual therapy are used to decide when and how hard fighters can train, with the goal of maintaining high-quality sessions and reducing injury risk.

Fueling must match training intensity and phase.

Wattenberg stresses that fighters often underfuel high-intensity sessions or diet the same way every day; instead, carbohydrate and fat intake are adjusted to session intensity and camp phase to drive adaptation without overtraining.

Weight cutting is dangerous and structurally hard to fix, but can be made safer.

They acknowledge extreme cuts are unnecessary risk, describe fight-week support (meal prep, rehydration, supplement control), and ongoing data collection to influence commissions—but emphasize the UFC can’t unilaterally change rules.

Objective data helps fighters choose optimal weight classes.

By benchmarking body composition, strength, power, and metabolic rate against divisional norms, the PI can advise whether an athlete fits, should move up, or is overcutting relative to their frame and physiology.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

We always talk about mixed martial arts as the decathlon of combat sports.

— Dr. Duncan French

Anything that doesn’t make you better in the octagon is pretty pointless.

— Forrest Griffin

This should be a 52‑week fight camp.

— Clint Wattenberg

We’re not trying to take the wild out of the stallion; you can train and shape the stallion and it still has the wild at heart.

— Dr. Duncan French

If you’re 20% over your fight weight, that’s not your fight weight.

— Forrest Griffin

Purpose and structure of the UFC Performance InstituteIndividualized training, recovery, and performance assessment technologiesPerformance nutrition, metabolic testing, and weight-cut strategiesInjury prevention, physical therapy, and career longevity in MMAThe complexity and evolution of MMA skills and conditioningDangers and policy challenges around extreme weight cuttingGlobal expansion and long-term development pathways for fighters

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