On JRE MMA Show #177, podcast host and longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan sat down with MMA veterans Matt Serra and Din Thomas, along with John Rallo, for a discussion about the rules and judging standards in modern mixed martial arts.
Discussing the issue of referee standups, Rogan made it clear that he fundamentally disagrees with the practice. “I don’t believe in standups at all. Period,” he said, arguing that athletes who secure takedowns should not be penalized simply because the action slows down.
He added that referees should only intervene under specific circumstances. “I think the only time you should stand up is someone fouls. If someone does a foul and then you have to stand it up, take a point away from them, maybe then you stand them up,” he explained.
The guests then emphasized that standups can unfairly reward poor defense from the athlete on the bottom. “You shouldn’t reward a guy for having like bad defense,” guest Din Thomas said.
Rallo added, saying, “If the dude on the bottom is the one that failed, put them back where they were. Don’t reward.”
Rogan agreed, saying: “Guy had to work so hard to get him to the ground. Maybe he’s taking a break for a couple seconds to catch his breath. Figure out how to get up. Bottom people just have to be better,” he said.
The conversation then shifted to controversial strike rules, particularly knees to the head of a downed opponent. Rogan argued that allowing the technique would dramatically change the dynamics of wrestling-heavy exchanges.
“Here’s how you fix that. Knees to the head to a downed opponent. And then it’s like… wrestlers become super dangerous,” he said.
He framed the restriction as part of a set of rules that he considers inconsistent with real-world combat. “There’s a lot of goofy rules. I don’t think it would be cool to stomp people in the head and soccer kick them. But at least knees to the head should be okay,” he noted.
Rogan illustrated the point with a common grappling scenario. “If you’re shooting on a single and you’re holding on to it and your head’s right there, that’s a dumb place to be in real life. Why wouldn’t the guy knee you in the head? You’re grabbing his knee,” he said.
Rogan also took aim at the current judging system in MMA, arguing that it relies too heavily on boxing conventions. “The scoring system sucks because we stole it from boxing,” he said, referencing the influence of traditional boxing scoring on MMA judging.
He believes the sport needs a more detailed points structure to better reflect the full range of techniques used in matches. “It doesn’t have enough points. You should be counting in submission attempts. You should be counting in takedown attempts, like who was more aggressive, who is more defensive. You should have like 100 points to work with,” he said.
Athlete safety was another major topic, particularly the issue of accidental eye pokes. Rogan advocated for strict, automatic penalties to discourage careless hand positioning.
“What I would emphasize first and foremost is how dangerous eye pokes are. Point deduction right away,” he said. He proposed removing referee discretion in most cases.
“You touch someone’s eyeball with your fingers, unless it’s a complete scramble, one point every time. No judges’ discretion, no referee’s discretion. Poke in the eye. One point,” he explained.
To address the root cause, Rogan also suggested a change to glove design. “Cover the tips of the fingers. You don’t use them anyway. Cover it with like a mitten. That mitigates a lot of it and you completely stop all this stuff, because now you have a solid thing that hits,” he said.
