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Joe Rogan says you should consider Cain Velasquez or Junior dos Santos for #1 spot in Heavyweight rankings
By Zach Arnold | July 2, 2010
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW RADIO INTERVIEW.
Also discussed during that interview was the fact that, because he accidentally gave out his phone number on Twitter, he has had to convert his private cell phone number into a fan line. The number is 818-517-2774.
DAVE FARRA: “Let’s talk about UFC 116 that’s happening this Saturday. Main event, do you think that this fight between Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar determines the #1 Heavyweight in the world now that Fedor has lost?”
JOE ROGAN: “That’s a good question. I mean it definitely is a huge test for Brock Lesnar but I don’t think you can discount Cain Velasquez and you got to include him in that heap and I also think you have to include Junior dos Santos, you know especially considering the fact you know Werdum just beat Fedor and then Junior dos Santos knocked out Werdum. I think there’s quite a few guys in the mix right now and the big ones right now are Carwin, Velasquez, and dos Santos. Those are the three in the UFC that are the big threats.”
MAHONEY: “Who do you rank higher? Do you have Cain higher than Junior dos Santos?”
JOE ROGAN: “No, I don’t rank either one any higher than the other until they face each other, I don’t think you can. I think it’s a really interesting mix of heavyweights right now. The division’s very exciting.”
MAHONEY: “In the Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight divisions, it seems like you know wrestlers are becoming the most dominant. Do you think the Unified Rules kind of favor wrestling, though, with the cage and without head kicks or head stomps? Do you think that is a unfair advantage for wrestlers?”
JOE ROGAN: “Honestly, I think if the Unified Rules were altered it would favor wrestlers even more because people want out of the Unified Rules, the changes are knees to the ground to a downed opponent — that favors wrestlers because they’re going to be the one on top and stomps and soccer kicks, that favors wrestlers, too, because they’re going to be the ones that are on top.”
DAVE FARRA: “The main event on Saturday night between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin, it’s two wrestlers and everyone says that Brock will probably have a slight advantage when it comes to the wrestling game, you know D-1 vs. D-2. How do you see this match actually playing out, especially early in the first round?”
JOE ROGAN: “I think that certainly Brock’s advantages are in speed and in athleticism. He’s got, I mean he’s one of the fastest men I’ve ever seen that’s you know 265 pounds. Literally I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody that could say, well, he’s close to Brock. No. Brock moves so much faster than your average 265 pound man. he just, it doesn’t seem right, so the big thing for Shane is, can he stuff the takedown and if he can stuff the takedown and keep the fight on its feet, that’s when things get interesting. If he gets taken down, can he get back up again? If it does, then it gets interesting. But if he can’t, then it gets ugly because then you ahve that big white gorilla on top of you smashing you in the head with those big lunchbox fists.”
DAVE FARRA: “There’s a lot of reports that Brock Lesnar, this illness that he went through, it kind of hit the reset button on his attitude and up to this point, at least in the public eye, Brock has kind of a dick and he’s dealt with pretty well in the sense that he enjoys being the heel and he likes to get under people’s skin and it’s just all part of his persona in what he plays but do you think that we’re going to see a different type of attitude from Brock Lesnar in the cage on Saturday night or do you think that he’s going to be the same character that we’ve seen up to this point?”
JOE ROGAN: “We might see a slight change but I think the attitude that carried him to success in the WWE, his way of dealing with the crowd, you know that heel act that he puts on, I think that’s very comfortable for him. It’s very easy for him to fall right into that. I think that’s just what he does. He’s great at being heel. The only one who does it as good as him, in my opinion, is Koscheck. Koscheck is fantastic at it. You know when Koscheck beat Paul Daley and the crowd as booing and then he yelled at the crowd, you know, oooh, the Penguins are going to kick your ass and then I’m going to beat GSP.”
DAVE FARRA: “And then he shouted out his after party.”
JOE ROGAN: “Yeah, I mean, it’s hilarious. I mean, Josh Koscheck is a master at being the heel. He’s awesome at it. I love it.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Props to Joe. He may have a point–arguably, the best current resumes in the HW division are JDS, Werdum, Fedor, and Cain.
Doesn’t matter too much. They will fight it out to determine who the best is….
Joe is dead on about ground knees helping wrestlers rather than hurting them, but I’m not sure I buy his argument on soccer kicks and stomps. Historically, those techniques have greatly favored strikers. The only wrestler I can think of who really took advantage of them was Frank Trigg in his fight versus Mayhem.
Stomps and soccer kicks will benefit whoever can get people to the mat. But I wouldn’t expect the Chute Boxe guys who had such success in a ring to translate it over to the cage.
The attributes of the cage make it such that only people with real takedown skills can get opponents to the floor. But the lack of support with ropes and dimensions of a ring actually help guys get their opponents to the floor without having to grapple them to the mat.