JRE MMA Show #79 with Vinny Shoreman & Liam Harrison
Joe Rogan (host), Vinny Shoreman (guest), Liam Harrison (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Vinny Shoreman, JRE MMA Show #79 with Vinny Shoreman & Liam Harrison explores muay Thai wars, aging bodies, and the mindset behind combat greatness Joe Rogan talks with Liam Harrison and Vinny Shoreman about the realities of high-level kickboxing and Muay Thai, from injuries and surgery to fighting in promotions like ONE Championship and Glory.
Muay Thai wars, aging bodies, and the mindset behind combat greatness
Joe Rogan talks with Liam Harrison and Vinny Shoreman about the realities of high-level kickboxing and Muay Thai, from injuries and surgery to fighting in promotions like ONE Championship and Glory.
They contrast different striking styles, rule sets, and cultures—Thai stadium gambling, Dutch-Moroccan kickboxing, bare-knuckle boxing, and MMA’s small gloves—showing how each changes strategy, damage, and career length.
A major thread is longevity and recovery: hot yoga, strength and conditioning, stem cells, smarter sparring, and how Thais and top coaches extend fighters’ primes while avoiding unnecessary brain and joint damage.
Vinny also dives into sports hypnosis and mental training, explaining how mindset, past trauma, and language patterns affect performance and how structured psychological work can change careers.
Key Takeaways
Smart recovery and mobility work can add years to a fighter’s career.
Harrison describes how hot yoga, stretching, and targeted strength work dramatically reduce injuries and stiffness compared to just pounding hard sparring and road work.
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Glove size and rule set fundamentally change what “good defense” looks like.
What works in Muay Thai with big gloves (like long guard) can get you knocked down instantly in four-ounce MMA gloves or bare knuckle, forcing total rethinks in defensive habits.
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Hard sparring shortens careers; controlled, playful training builds skill without damage.
They cite Thai play-sparring, Cuban boxing, and Gracie jiu-jitsu’s “keep it playful” ethos as superior to weekly gym wars that leave fighters punchy in their late 20s.
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Strength and conditioning must be individualized and sport-specific.
The guests contrast outdated running-heavy Thai routines with modern programs that emphasize mobility, posterior chain strength, and low-impact conditioning tools like AirRunners and rowers.
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ONE Championship’s hydration system is a viable alternative to brutal weight cuts.
Harrison explains ONE’s multiple weigh-ins and hydration tests, showing you can compete at your “real” weight and avoid the extreme, kidney-damaging cuts common in MMA.
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Mental training and hypnosis can measurably change fight performance.
Shoreman details work with fighters like Liam Harrison and Eddie Alvarez, using code words, reframing past experiences, and linguistic patterns to control anxiety and sharpen focus under pressure.
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Global talent is deeper than most Western audiences realize.
They highlight murderous yet unknown Russians, Thais, and Dutch-Moroccan kickboxers in ONE and regional shows, arguing many could threaten famous UFC and boxing stars if given a platform.
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Notable Quotes
“One mistake in them [small] gloves, and it is…”
— Liam Harrison
“You don’t realize how badly out of balance your body is if you’re a weightlifter until you do yoga.”
— Joe Rogan
“I’ve worked out that play sparring, like 50% sparring, is just as good. You still get your eyes working… you’re just not getting hurt.”
— Liam Harrison
“I believe anxiety is something from the past, thought about now, projected into the future.”
— Vinny Shoreman
“There are so many of those guys out there in these other countries that no one’s seen.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much longer can traditional hard-sparring cultures (like Dutch and some Thai camps) remain viable as we learn more about brain trauma?
Joe Rogan talks with Liam Harrison and Vinny Shoreman about the realities of high-level kickboxing and Muay Thai, from injuries and surgery to fighting in promotions like ONE Championship and Glory.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If every major promotion adopted ONE Championship’s hydration-based system, how would rankings and champions change once huge weight cuts disappeared?
They contrast different striking styles, rule sets, and cultures—Thai stadium gambling, Dutch-Moroccan kickboxing, bare-knuckle boxing, and MMA’s small gloves—showing how each changes strategy, damage, and career length.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where is the line between effective mental conditioning and potentially unhealthy programming in fighters, especially starting from childhood?
A major thread is longevity and recovery: hot yoga, strength and conditioning, stem cells, smarter sparring, and how Thais and top coaches extend fighters’ primes while avoiding unnecessary brain and joint damage.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Why has elite kickboxing and Muay Thai struggled to become mainstream in the US and UK despite being so consistently exciting?
Vinny also dives into sports hypnosis and mental training, explaining how mindset, past trauma, and language patterns affect performance and how structured psychological work can change careers.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Could a truly hybrid training system—combining Thai play-sparring, Dutch combinations, Western S&C, and structured hypnosis—produce a noticeably different kind of champion?
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Transcript Preview
Here we go. Liam and Vinnie-
Hello.
... my savage friends from mother England.
Thank you for being back.
Good to see you again, man. What's happening? How's, how's it been?
All sorts of things are going on, Joe. All sorts of things.
Now, strange as well, ha-happy birthday, sir.
Birthday boy over here as well, 50 today.
I appreciate it.
(laughs)
Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
You don't look a day over 49 and a half. Looking good. (laughs)
I can feel it.
(laughs)
Jesus.
I feel it. I pulled a muscle in my leg bowling last night.
Oh, no.
Bad news, man.
When you're a world kickboxing champion and you pull a muscle bowling, those are sad times.
It was, it was pathetic, innit mate? It was pathetic.
(laughs)
Ah, you're just settling-
I was looking at myself in the mirror this morning when I got up and thought, "You are a loser, mate."
(laughs)
"What have you done?"
One of my worst neck injuries I ever got was in the shower. I was just turning-
I mean, I did that, I was brushing my teeth.
... to get my shampoo-
Yeah.
... just like that, I went, "Ah, fuck, fuck, fuck!" (laughs) It just popped. Right, look at that, knocked over Rory MacDonald and Bruce Lee-
(laughs)
... with my shenanigans, my antics. Yeah, that's a bummer, man. Bowling?
Bowling, mate, yeah.
(laughs)
The thing is when I felt it, I felt, "I've done myself in here, but I can't lose the game," and then I carried on. At least I won the game.
Well, imagine if, like, you had a workout and your trainer was like, "Okay, we're gonna do some bowling." You're like, "How the fuck?" (laughs) "This isn't even an effort."
I wouldn't mind yesterday morning, I did some hard round sparring, I've got a little bl- black eye from it and stuff. Clinching, running, fine.
No problems?
Bowling...
Well, maybe it was, like, some residual stiffness.
I've been... Do you know what? We've been driving around a lot with the... With sem- uh, schedules have been hectic. So, we've had seminars and stuff going over. We've been sat in the car a lot, so my hips have been stiff. So, I think it was to do with that to be honest, because it's right up here on my hip where I've done myself.
Yeah, man. That's legit. That's a big deal. Like, when I come out of here, like, when I just get up after sitting in a chair for five hours, I'm, my everything feels weird. You know, you gotta roll it, stretch-
My wake-up's so... Joe: (laughs) My wake-up is I've been fucking beat up. I don't know what's, what's that about.
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