During an episode of the JRE MMA Show, Joe Rogan and newly retired boxing champion Terrence Crawford engaged in a discussion about the UFC’s heavyweight weight limit, a topic that exposed fundamental differences between boxing and mixed martial arts weight class structures.
The conversation emerged as Rogan and Crawford discussed weight cutting practices across combat sports. When the topic shifted to the UFC’s weight classes, Rogan revealed a policy that surprised the undefeated boxer.
“The UFC has a heavyweight limit. You know how crazy that is?” Rogan asked Crawford directly.
“Isn’t that st*pid? It’s stu*id, right?” Rogan continued, clearly frustrated by the policy.
Crawford, learning about this restriction for the first time, responded with genuine surprise. “I’m just now learning about that,” he said.
Rogan explained the specifics: “265. You have to weigh 265 pounds. So, think about Tyson Fury. When Tyson Fury competed against Deontay, he was like 280, 285.”
The implications immediately struck Crawford. Rogan painted a stark picture: “Imagine he’s got to dehydrate himself. He’s got to lose 20 pounds just to make the weight class. That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Crawford agreed, responding: “At all. It’s the heavyweight. It’s the heaviest weight we can go.”
Rogan brought up a historical boxing example to illustrate the absurdity. “Remember Valuev when he was competing against Evander Holyfield?” Rogan asked, referencing the massive Russian heavyweight who stood 7 feet tall.
“Oh my god. He was huge,” Crawford recalled. “He had to be over 300 pounds. He was a giant. He was a literal giant.”
Recognizing how close Rogan is with UFC CEO Dana White, Crawford made a direct appeal. “So, I think that’s something you need to talk to Dana about,” he suggested.
But Rogan quickly deflated the suggestion with resignation. “Nobody listens to me, bro. They don’t listen to me. They think I’m crazy.”
Crawford pushed back supportively. “Well, we got to petition it then.”
Rogan continued his lament: “Oh, I have a bunch of wacky rules that I want to institute. So, I understand why they don’t want to listen to me. I would throw the whole sport up in the air.”
Crawford then offered perspective from a contender’s standpoint about how change happens in combat sports. “I think these combat sports, it got to come from the competitors, you know, just like boxing. I think if the competitors come together, they can make anything happen. The competitors don’t understand the level of power that they carry because they think, ‘Oh, since they cutting the check, they got the power, right?’ You know, but they can’t cut the check without us.”
However, Crawford immediately acknowledged the practical complications that prevent unity. “But it’s the competitors that need the money that makes it hard, right? Because the competitors that already got the money, they can make a stand for something. But the competitors that doesn’t, they like, ‘Well, you can do that. I got to provide for my family.'”
He continued: “You can take a chance of going at the organization for a year or however long it’s going to last, but who going to pay my bills, right? Who going to put food on my family table while we doing this, while we making this stand?”
Crawford concluded with a sobering reality: “So, it’s a little tougher for them to make that stand than a person that’s already established.”
Rogan’s frustration over the heavyweight limit comes after years of voicing a very different complaint about the division. In the past, he has openly said he’s tired of seeing out-of-shape heavyweights inside the Octagon, especially after the UFC’s anti-d*ping overhaul in 2015.
Speaking on his podcast with NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, Rogan reflected on how the introduction of USADA dramatically changed competitors’ physiques.
“USADA, when UFC brought in USADA, all of that changed and people’s physiques melted,” he said, pointing to Alistair Overeem as the prime example. “When he’s flexing on stage, that’s when he’s ‘Ubereem,’ 260 [pounds], solid as f*ck, ripped.”
Rogan even admitted he misses the era before PED testing, particularly in the heavyweight division. “They make him take the d**g test, and he becomes a normal person with good skills,” Rogan said of Overeem. “I would have loved to see what an Alistair Overeem run on the sauce would have been. My god. It would have been epic.”
He then added, “Oh yeah, I want fun… I don’t want to see fat heavyweights. Get the f*ck out of here.”
