Joe Rogan on Striking Specialists in MMA

I'm such a sucker for a specialist whether it's a style bender specialist or striking specialist or a Damien Maya specialist I love watching the guys that are like at the tip of the the ability in whatever their discipline Right and style bender man. He seems to be getting better every time. Yeah. Yeah Well for him, it was just about avoiding takedowns like he was so high level as a kickboxer He's so clever Like he's he's like in my opinion probably the very best in the sport at setting traps. Yeah He'll like gauge you see what you're doing those instances getting some information. Yeah. Yeah, it's not it's not random And I like the way he deals with those takedowns I mean he knows where he's safe and where he's not you don't see these panicking He's like yes come in it and let this cook a minute But yeah, I see what I seen what this attempt looks like. I see what this one looks like Walking it through. All right now my party's gonna start Yeah, here's a guy I talked to one of his guys he trains with I was referencing fights in China and It's one of the guys he trains with in New Zealand and this guy was telling me so much and showing me different things about angles they do and Things that they set up in their striking that I never knew or thought about and this was before I saw him start fighting In UFC, you know, just everybody was aware of him, but he hadn't been in the UFC yet and man these guys These guys are really smart these the the techniques like this sport is growing so much, you know, yeah Yeah, that's what I was saying like when when you're seeing like really high-level super technical strikers like him like who's a world-class I mean as good he easily could be world champion in many organizations as a kickboxer You see him now in the UFC and see guys having to deal with that. It's like, right? Okay, this is like the Anderson fights a great great example. We'd know how great Anderson is Yeah, it still looked pretty good against style bender, but you could see why style bender was special in that yeah He had like another level of trickery. Yeah, yeah, and I mean in stuff John Jones is doing. Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, well, so you can't call him a specialist cuz man, he does so many different styles, right? It's like it's really like a kung fu movie right where you change that. Yeah Yeah, and then they do they do something. Yeah. Yeah Well John such a good kicker too. I mean, that's that's interesting that he started out as a wrestler Cuz like how much of his style now is keeping you it's a giant part of his game is utilization those long ass legs Right and and he's it's interesting like how how much time he looks like he's getting information on that, right? Yeah, then all of a sudden then then when he shifts gears, it's like, okay, I've gotten a lot of information Here's I'm gonna do with it. Yeah Yeah He's gonna fight Tiago Santos, right? Yeah. Yeah Whoo That guy goes for broke. I mean he goes for broke it's interesting to watch him fight because You want to talk about like a wild reckless dude like Santos is dangerous John Jones should and probably will be a heavy favorite But Santos he does he throws some haymakers. No, no, it's gonna be it's gonna be it's gonna be it's a great fight to watch Yeah, that guy's gonna go out on his shield. No he and he puts pressure. I think the interesting thing about Well for me what's interesting when I watch any of the heavier guys fight is like, you know They really have to understand where they're safe and whether or not that's something that John does really good Yeah, how to be in the pocket in the places where he's safe and what you know, no one wears Yeah, he's the best ever at utilizing his reach Like no one's ever been better at controlling reach and then never letting a guy reset when guys try to reset BAM He kicks them BAM. He kicks him again BAM. He kicks him again He's like he knows when you're trying to get comfortable when you're trying to settle in and that's when he kicks you Like it's almost like he senses it and he just starts battering you like he sees like no, no, no breaks No, no breaks. No breaks. No breaks like the no breaks. What about a man? Max Holloway. Oh, dude, he's the king of no breaks Oh Pores it on you just keeps coming. Yeah