JRE MMA Show #37 with Mark DellaGrotte
Joe Rogan (host), Mark DellaGrotte (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Mark DellaGrotte, JRE MMA Show #37 with Mark DellaGrotte explores inside Muay Thai, MMA Toughness, Injury Realities, And Fight Culture Joe Rogan and Mark DellaGrotte trade stories from decades in Muay Thai and MMA, covering technical nuances, training philosophies, and the harsh realities of fighting. They dissect body shots, leg and calf kicks, clinch work, and how different rule sets and scoring systems shape styles in Thailand, Holland, and the U.S. The conversation repeatedly returns to fighter safety: over-sparring, brain trauma, staph/MRSA, knees and backs, and how bad judging plus win bonuses can unfairly punish fighters. Interwoven throughout are vivid anecdotes about Thailand, Boston, famous fighters, organized crime figures, and the evolution of the UFC from near-bankruptcy to a multibillion-dollar business.
Inside Muay Thai, MMA Toughness, Injury Realities, And Fight Culture
Joe Rogan and Mark DellaGrotte trade stories from decades in Muay Thai and MMA, covering technical nuances, training philosophies, and the harsh realities of fighting. They dissect body shots, leg and calf kicks, clinch work, and how different rule sets and scoring systems shape styles in Thailand, Holland, and the U.S. The conversation repeatedly returns to fighter safety: over-sparring, brain trauma, staph/MRSA, knees and backs, and how bad judging plus win bonuses can unfairly punish fighters. Interwoven throughout are vivid anecdotes about Thailand, Boston, famous fighters, organized crime figures, and the evolution of the UFC from near-bankruptcy to a multibillion-dollar business.
Key Takeaways
Body shots—especially liver shots—are fight-ending weapons with delayed effects.
Rogan and DellaGrotte break down Aldo’s liver KO and describe how even tough, durable fighters collapse seconds after impact, showing why body work and disguising combinations are so critical.
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Understanding rule sets and scoring is crucial when fighting internationally.
Thai and Dutch judges reward different techniques (e. ...
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Hard, ego-driven sparring shortens careers and wrecks fighters’ brains and bodies.
They recount Boston-era “meathead sparring” and camps where partners tried to knock each other out, contrasting that with smarter, defense-oriented training and noting how many veterans now carry permanent damage.
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Modern leg and calf kicks, plus oblique kicks, are changing MMA meta-games.
From Benson Henderson’s calf kicks to Jon Jones’ oblique kicks, they explain how attacks to the lower leg and front knee are low-risk, hard to check, and can instantly compromise a fighter who hasn’t planned for them.
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Back and neck health require active decompression and targeted strengthening.
With wrestling, clinching, and jiu-jitsu compressing the spine, tools like reverse hypers and inversion tables are highlighted as essential for both preventing and rehabbing chronic back injuries.
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Staph and MRSA are pervasive threats in grappling gyms and on fight shows.
DellaGrotte describes almost “saving” an Ultimate Fighter season by forcing proper mat disinfection and hygiene, and both men emphasize early detection, aggressive treatment, and strict sanitation protocols.
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Bad judging plus win bonuses can financially punish the wrong fighter.
Rogan argues that flat pay would be fairer, because incompetent judging in a 10-point-must system can swing half a fighter’s purse to the wrong person, especially when the outcome is a bad decision.
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Notable Quotes
“A liver shot’s weird, man. It’s delayed—there’s that split second where you’re like, ‘I got this’… and then you just fold over.”
— Joe Rogan
“To take away clinch work makes no sense to me. It’s half the art at that point.”
— Mark DellaGrotte
“We were cavemen at the time… you’d go to a boxing gym as the new guy and it was on. That was extremely unintelligent, but that’s all we knew.”
— Mark DellaGrotte
“Fighting should always be done at its best. You should always do what’s the right thing to do in the situation, not what the fans want if it’s wrong.”
— Joe Rogan
“As much as I’m involved in this sport, it’s hard to watch sometimes—seeing these guys take the damage they do.”
— Mark DellaGrotte
Questions Answered in This Episode
How would Muay Thai and MMA change if global promotions standardized rules and scoring closer to authentic Thai criteria?
Joe Rogan and Mark DellaGrotte trade stories from decades in Muay Thai and MMA, covering technical nuances, training philosophies, and the harsh realities of fighting. ...
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What’s the smartest way for young fighters to build toughness and timing without meathead sparring and long-term brain damage?
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Should MMA adopt a completely new scoring system—and if so, what would it look like to fairly measure striking, grappling, and control?
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Are kicks to the knee and calf ethically acceptable tools in MMA, or should some joint attacks be banned despite punches and head kicks being legal?
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Given the prevalence of staph and MRSA, what minimum hygiene protocols should gyms and promotions be required to follow to protect fighters?
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Transcript Preview
(humming) Five, four, three, two, one. Boom, and we're live, Mark DellaGrotte.
What up?
Most of the time, if you and I are talking on a microphone, it's when you're in the truck and I'm talking to you and you know, and like right before a big fight.
(laughs)
People don't realize, like, you're, you're the guy I talk to.
Yeah, man. A lot of shit talking going on. (laughs)
I do a lot of shit talking. A lot of things that we probably shouldn't say. (laughs)
(laughs) Luckily, it doesn't make the broadcast, so that's good.
Well, when that one got leaked when, uh, Aldo was about to fight Conor.
Yeah, what was that?
And I said, "He does not look good." I, I said, "He looks nervous as fuck."
I remember that.
I go, "His body looks flat."
Soft and flat, yeah.
Yeah, and then he got flatlined.
Yeah, well-
Yeah.
... you were right. (laughs)
I was right in that regard.
That did make program, didn't it?
Well, people... What happened was somebody recorded it. It was, uh, I was talking to you, I think.
Yeah.
And I was talking to Bruce.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, it just, uh, somebody just decided to be a little twat and leaked that shit.
Dude, I'm paranoid in that truck sometimes-
You have to be now.
... I'm gonna push the wrong fucking button, and now I'm gonna be talking shit to you or Mair and-
(laughs)
... something. (laughs)
Well, that was one where, um, was, uh, it was interesting. I was like, "Oh, okay. Well, somebody's a f- fucking asshole." Like, you're-
(laughs)
... you're privy to this sort of inside banter to like, to release that, like, and make it public. I would never say that publicly, so I was very upset that they did that.
Yeah.
But it was honest.
Sure, true. No, you're right. Yeah.
It was honest. He did look like shit, but damn, he looked good last weekend.
He looked unbelievable.
Isn't that crazy?
I'm happy for our man.
I'm very happy for him.
I love Jeremy Stevens. I love Jeremy Stevens, great guy. I mean, you know, we're, we're cool with everybody.
Yeah, of course.
You know, you work for the company, you gotta get to know everybody, you gotta be cool with everybody. But it was good to see Jose Aldo back on top, man. He needed that bad, dude.
Well, when someone... Every... I'm, uh, always happy when someone liv- wins with a liver shot.
Oh. (laughs)
Because it's such a, uh, it's one of those weird punches. Like, you'll see someone, you'll see two guys, and they exchange good shots to the body, and they seem like they have no effect. You know, obviously they hurt, but they're (clicks tongue) they'll deal with it and keep fighting. And then every now and then, you see whap and then (groans) .
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