“It’s sanctioned cheating,” Joe Rogan claims weight cutting is worse than PEDs as a higher-scale form of cheating

Joe Rogan calls out fighters who cut extreme weight and then show up at the fight night much bigger than before.

“It’s sanctioned cheating,” Joe Rogan claims weight cutting is worse than PEDs as a higher-scale form of cheating

Joe Rogan on extreme weight loss (Image Courtesy: New York Magazine)

For many years, fighters have used weight reduction to their advantage inside weight divisions. It’s a risky yet very common routine used by various fighters who walk around at much larger weight than what they show during the weigh-ins. Joe Rogan once described this as “Sanctioned Cheating,” which is worse than using performance-enhancing drugs. According to Rogan, cheating occurs when a fighter increases his size significantly for the fight night in comparison to his opponent without using specific anabolic steroids.

He said: ‘It’s sanctioned cheating. It’s cheating on a much higher scale even than PED. If you get two people and they both weigh 135 and they’re both totally hydrated. One of them has been doing steroids and one of them hasn’t been doing steroids,the difference will be far less than if one person weighs in at 135 but then balloons up to 160 and then gets into that octagon but there’s no PEDs involved. That’s a much greater advantage.” in one of his podcasts.

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Rogan mentioned that this puts fighters who fight at their natural weight at a massive disadvantage. However, nothing much can be done on this matter as fighters will continue to do so in order to get any kind of upper hand.

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Related: When Joe Rogan asked if human evolution came from super-advanced ‘Alien DNA’

How scary weight cuts can be?

Conor McGregor (Image Courtesy: JOE)
Conor McGregor (Image Courtesy: JOE)

MMA Athletes have a history of going above and beyond to find an advantage or edge over their opponents. Fighters typically start a cut 5-7 days before the weigh-in. Body is made of up 60 percent water and in order to cut 20-30 pounds, fighters tend to dehydrate themselves. 

Weight cutting is a very hard process and puts a great amount of toll on the fighter’s body. If done incorrectly, it can lead to severe health issues and fighters generally have a team of experts who monitor then throughout this process. 

https://youtu.be/qGcNuXxUnqg

Still,there are many cases where things go bad and many athletes collapse on the stage or are taken to the hospital during the weight cuts. For example in 2017, former lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov was admitted in the hospital after a weight cut and the fight was called off. Fighters who cut a lot of weight often look super dehydrated and fragile in the weigh-ins. 

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