Joe Rogan made it clear during a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience featuring Vice President JD Vance that the UFC has overtaken boxing as the premier combat sports entertainment in America, and he believes the reason comes down to one thing: mixed martial arts is simply a more exciting product.
The conversation grew out of a discussion about the UFC event held at the White House, a landmark moment for the sport that left both Rogan and Vance reflecting on how far the UFC has come.
Vance admitted he had noticed the cultural shift himself, saying, “What’s crazy about it to me is just how much the sport has replaced boxing and like there’s still obviously boxing is still a big deal and figh ters still get paid a lot of money but like I remember when I was in high school I feel like people would get really excited about the big heavyweight title bout. Now it’s the UFC thing.”
Rogan went on to explain why he thinks that shift has happened. He said some friends who manage boxers attended a UFC event recently and came away with a clear verdict.
“My friend Josh Dubin and a few other friends that actually manage boxers come to the UFC and they were all like, ‘Oh my god, this is so much better than a boxing promotion.'”
The core of the argument, according to Rogan, comes down to how cards are structured. At boxing events, undercard bouts are largely ignored.
He said, “With boxing, most people are just there for the main event. And a lot of people don’t even stroll in until like 15 minutes before the main event.” In the UFC, the atmosphere is different from the opening match. “In the UFC, that place is packed for, you know, five, six, seven fig hts in.”
But it goes beyond crowd attendance. Rogan pointed to the nature of MMA itself as the driving force behind the UFC’s rise.
“It’s just a more exciting sport,” he noted. “There’s more ways to win. It’s more dynamic. More things happen and there’s more stars. There’s so many stars in the UFC.”
Boxing has long been criticized for relying on a handful of big names to carry entire promotional cycles, while the UFC has built a roster of recognizable fighters across multiple weight classes and combat styles.
