JRE Fight Companion - March 22, 2025
Joe Rogan (host), Brendan Schaub (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Gordon Ryan (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Narrator, Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Narrator, Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Narrator, Guest (guest), Guest (guest), Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Brendan Schaub, JRE Fight Companion - March 22, 2025 explores sean Brady Dominates Leon Edwards; Future Of Combat Sports Debated This JRE Fight Companion follows a London UFC card in real time, with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Gordon Ryan, and Brendan Schaub reacting to the fights while veering into deep tangents on MMA, jiu-jitsu, performance enhancement, history, conspiracies, and cars.
Sean Brady Dominates Leon Edwards; Future Of Combat Sports Debated
This JRE Fight Companion follows a London UFC card in real time, with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Gordon Ryan, and Brendan Schaub reacting to the fights while veering into deep tangents on MMA, jiu-jitsu, performance enhancement, history, conspiracies, and cars.
They analyze fighters like Ilia Topuria, Tom Aspinall, Jan Blachowicz, Carlos Ulberg, Gunnar Nelson, Kevin Holland, and especially Sean Brady, whose dominant win and late guillotine over champion Leon Edwards shocks the room.
Much of the discussion centers on how grappling and leg-lock systems are evolving, the UFC’s business choices (slap fighting vs kickboxing, Contender Series vs TUF), and how rule sets and weight cutting shape modern MMA.
The episode also dives into Gordon Ryan’s training philosophy and severe gut issues, PEDs/peptides, bizarre recovery methods, simulation and religious theories, and the increasingly strange intersection of politics, media narratives, and combat sports.
Key Takeaways
Sean Brady has emerged as an elite welterweight threat after dismantling Leon Edwards.
Brady repeatedly outwrestles and mauls Edwards on the ground, wins rounds clearly, then finishes with a mounted guillotine; the group sees him as a serious problem for contenders like Belal, Shavkat, and even Islam if he ever moved divisions.
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Technical grappling and leg locks can work in MMA, but only from the right positions.
Gordon Ryan and Eddie Bravo stress that positions where opponents can’t get “head over head” are safest (e. ...
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The UFC is leaving value on the table by pushing slap fighting over kickboxing/Muay Thai.
Rogan argues UFC should invest in kickboxing with MMA gloves and pure striking events—possibly even bare‑knuckle—using the same promotional muscle they’ve applied to slap and grappling, because fans love chaos and most champs already come from striking sports.
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Modern UFC matchmaking offers almost no “tune‑up” fights, unlike boxing’s ladder system.
They highlight veterans like Jan Blachowicz and Gunnar Nelson returning from long layoffs directly against killers like Carlos Ulberg and Kevin Holland; in boxing a star would get lighter opponents first to shake off rust and build specific experience.
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True dominance in grappling comes from knowledge density and work ethic, not just genetics or PEDs.
Gordon Ryan insists his edge is built on obsessive daily study (instructionals, positional reps, constant refinement), not just strength or drugs; he’s baffled that few pros systematically study his publicly available material and replicate it.
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Weight cutting and oversized fighters are distorting divisions and careers.
They repeatedly criticize brutal cuts (Topuria to 145, Pereira to 185, older examples like Gleison Tibau and Rumble at 170), argue for more weight classes and hydration testing, and note that many narratives about fighters being “too small” are simply wrong once you know their walk‑around weights.
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Peptides, nootropics, and odd therapies are now quasi‑normal in high‑level combat sports.
The group casually discusses BPC‑157, TB‑500, methylene blue, blue scorpion venom, stem cells, and creatine gummies as standard tools; Rogan and Schaub joke that they can’t even tell which compound is helping because they use so many at once.
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Notable Quotes
““If you have long legs, you should be doing dead orchards. It’s by far the number one armbar in the guard no‑gi, and there’s not even a close second.””
— Eddie Bravo
““Most people talk about hard work, but the hardest work is mental work… You can give them the tools, but they won’t build the house.””
— Gordon Ryan
““They should all stop cutting weight. It’s bullshit. It’s terrible for you. They need more weight classes and they need to figure out hydration testing.””
— Joe Rogan
““There’s no gimme fights anymore in the UFC. Those Contender Series kids, you don’t know their names but they’re world‑class the second they walk in.””
— Brendan Schaub
““Antibiotics fucked my life up way more than anything else I’ve ever done to myself… It’s basically like being seasick 24/7.””
— Gordon Ryan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How does Sean Brady’s dominant win over Leon Edwards reshape the welterweight title picture and potential matchups with Belal Muhammad, Shavkat Rakhmonov, and Islam Makhachev?
This JRE Fight Companion follows a London UFC card in real time, with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Gordon Ryan, and Brendan Schaub reacting to the fights while veering into deep tangents on MMA, jiu-jitsu, performance enhancement, history, conspiracies, and cars.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If the UFC seriously invested in kickboxing or bare‑knuckle kickboxing alongside MMA, how might that change fighter development, fan interest, and the competitive landscape?
They analyze fighters like Ilia Topuria, Tom Aspinall, Jan Blachowicz, Carlos Ulberg, Gunnar Nelson, Kevin Holland, and especially Sean Brady, whose dominant win and late guillotine over champion Leon Edwards shocks the room.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
For MMA fighters, what is the most realistic way to integrate advanced leg‑lock systems (like honey hole, backside 50/50, and Aoki locks) without getting smashed by strikes?
Much of the discussion centers on how grappling and leg-lock systems are evolving, the UFC’s business choices (slap fighting vs kickboxing, Contender Series vs TUF), and how rule sets and weight cutting shape modern MMA.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given Gordon Ryan’s focus on mental work and technical study, how much of elite combat sports success is knowledge and preparation versus innate athleticism and pharmacology?
The episode also dives into Gordon Ryan’s training philosophy and severe gut issues, PEDs/peptides, bizarre recovery methods, simulation and religious theories, and the increasingly strange intersection of politics, media narratives, and combat sports.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Are extreme weight cuts and current weight‑class structures fundamentally broken, and what specific rule or structural changes (more divisions, hydration tests, pay structures) would actually fix the problem without killing big fights?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
... thing that I told you about the-
God, Joe is the best.
Hey, we're up, we're up, we're up, we're up. Uh, it's not a good sign that the fights are still going on for the prelims. That must mean there's a lot of decisions.
Lot of prelims.
Lot of prelims, but also a lot of decisions. Like, usually they time it out better, 'cause it's like 3:04 now and this is 1:37 to go in the third round of Jai Herbert.
Not ideal.
No. But, you know, shit happens.
Shit happens.
At least, at least they're not doing it at five o'clock in the morning.
True. (laughs)
That was, that was fucking ridiculous. If I was Leon, I'd be pissed.
What time was it in the UK when this happened?
It's normal time. It's, uh, you know-
They're seven hours ahead, yeah.
Yeah. So it's nighttime there.
Yeah, so it's their normal time.
So it's like 10:00 PM right now, it's normal. Are they six hours ahead or seven hours ahead?
I thought it was seven.
Something like that. Um, but either way it's nighttime there.
Have you- have you seen any of these guys fight before?
Yeah. Jai Herbert's the guy that head kicked Ilia Topuria. He dropped-
Knocked him out?
He dropped-
No, he got in the middle.
With a vicious head kick and then Ilia fucking starched him in the next round.
Yeah. He has great striking. Great striking.
Yeah. Very, very good kicks.
Big prospect.
Real tall, long, lanky dude. But, you know, Ilia, that guy, he connects on anybody they're going night-night.
Oh, Joe, you pr- if you knew, I know you can't probably talk about it, but do you see Ilia's tweet where he's like, "I'm gonna have big news, you guys aren't expecting it."
Yeah, I don't know the news.
You have no clue?
No, I don't know. If I had a guess, he's probably fighting a top contender at 55. I don't think he's going-
But that wouldn't be unexpected. You know what I'm saying? He's like, "You won't see this coming." So-
Hmm.
... it's not Makhachev 'cause we all assumed that. Makhachev's not fighting in Makhachev's going up to 70.
Uh, be- unexpected-
Ilia's walking around at 186.
Yeah, he's big, man.
Conor?
That's crazy. Conor would have to be in the testing pool for a long time. He's not in the testing pool.
Oh, don't be a hater. Don't be a hater. Isn't he doing bare knuckle, Conor?
Well, he's running bare knuckle. He's like one of the- one of the owners.
He's one of the owners.
Yeah.
Oh, so he's not gonna fight.
No, he may.
He might.
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