Is MMA Safer Than Boxing ? | Joe Rogan

I love how Joe was talking about how dangerous head collisions are then proceeds to make an argument for the legalization of head butts in MMA.

"when people get head kicked unconscious its not good for their brain" lmao.

The scariest thing to see for me happened in PeeWee football in 5th grade. The coach's son was the all star QB and we all looked up to him. He seemed damn near invincible. Then one game he got tackled into a sea of other kids and when everyone cleared out he was just laying there. His neck had snapped. He was paralyzed from basically where the solar plectrum is downwards and has to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life before he made it to high school. A lot of our teammates had this QB complex of it didn't matter who they were they were the new king and this paralyzed kid was basically abandoned throughout high school. I spent every day with him though. He always joked that if he was never paralyzed how else would he get a physique like Johnny Bravo lol. Hope you're doing well, Travis. Love ya bud.

That wasn't a rotisserie chicken in the thumbnail?

Mma guys: mma is safer than football. Also mma guys: headbutting should be legal.

Boxing has had 2 major deaths this year as far as I remember. It's so common

Most UFC fighters take home less than a burger chain manager after gym fees, management, coaching and staffing training camps. It’s kind of amazing how little they actually make.

One of the reasons mma is safer than boxing is because in mma, if you get stunned and knocked down, your opponent can go ahead and finish you and end the fight, in boxing, the ref will give the boxer a chance to recover and continue the fight, and of course the boxer being stubborn, would still continue even if his body's giving up.

Boxers take to many sustained punches to the head. The brain is constantly banging around against the skull..

Rugby has less cte... less not none. That is because they know how to tackle and there is way less blind side hits.

5:28 caught me so off guard, yikes

The first point he made is actually true. Look at rugby. They completely play a different way. I actually had a football coach in high school who was also a rugby coach and he was asked that exact question " isn't it worse to basically play football but without pads" and his response was "people tackle and move in a different way because they subconsciously know that safety isn't there." The padding seems to cause more damage as it changes they way you play.

MMA is safer than boxing. The damage is more spread out on your body like your legs. as opposed to having all the damage on your ribs and head. Also The fights are drastically shorter to 15-25 minute vs 36 minute fights.

Boxers are dying in the ring yearly MMA fighters rarely die in matches

Joe "when people get head kicked unconscious its not good for their brain" Rogan Experience

Love how unbiased Joe is about boxing

“Skull drills”. That’s lining up across from another guy and ramming your heads into each other over and over again. That’s just one of the insane things I remember doing in football practice in high school.

I've only heard of mma deaths due to weight cuts but there are like 2 in unsanctioned fights. We know boxers drop like flies though

In high school, I had friends who would get concussions and the next day, they show up to practice and act like they’re hung over. They loved the game so much

Im so glad they brought this up. I laugh at people that go on and on about how violent boxing and MMA are but they love them some football.

5:28 What on earth is this sound

Yoel romero vs Joe Rogan make it happen

MMA is way safer don’t get hit as much as a boxer if you add up all the punches landed in total a boxer gets hit most of the time over 500 punches MMA is a few punches and more wrestling

Joe: why can't I headbutt? *Evander Holyfield has entered the chat*

Statistics show that boxer's have to rely on their defense if not they will live a hard life in the future. MMA well head kicks, bones broken, man they're both dangerous!

MMA ur more likely to break ur arm or tear an ACL but Boxing ur gonna suffer life long brain trauma with the repeated blows. Gloves allow u to punch harder and longer by protecting ur hands and reducing cuts and the striking zone is very small ur either being hit in ur head or internal organs.

I know that there is also an aspect of Muay Thai that teaches to lean in to the opponent's punch with their forehead to avoid getting hit in the soft tissue like the nose or eyes. This gives people the impression that Muay Thai fighters are really tough but it is just a trick. I must say though this makes Muay Thai fighters mentally tough, teaching them to go against their basic instinct of retreating from danger.

4:55 this is so important and why a lot of people don't realize punching is just one aspect of a real fight

A friend of mine died from having a concussion and playing on in the rugby match it was heartnrraking and preventable. I stoped playing for my club and only played for the school as the size and level of competition was smaller.then I stoped becuase of the risk.i started mm and boxing after and I got injured way more as a rugby player than a boxer or doing mma training. The force and size of a large rugby player smashing into you in my opinion isnt comparative to a bunch or a kick

Rogan before Its all over I just want to see you spinning back kick somebody In the OCTAGON

Headbutt isn't the best weapon to KO someone, and it's risky in many ways. I've watch many Lethwei fights live, but I've never seen a headbutt KO. But, it is a useful tool in clinch, and also a good equalizer for someone with height/reach disadvantage.

I wanna see Joe in a hardcore straight edge mosh pit, feelin the riffs & spin kickin nukkas all wild.

Sports science already proved this. The pads make the hits 4x harder than rugby. They said it was compared as 5 mph crash to a 30 mph crash.

I coach HS football, I really think taking away the helmet or transitioning to a much smaller helmet would be the best situation. Right now, most teams are teaching rugby style tackling which completely takes the head out of the tackle, no need for it. The NFL just put an emphasis on penalizing/fining more OL/DL for initiating contact with the helmet. The game is being adjusted so that you can't use the helmet which is a great thing. Now think about some of the greatest NFL/NCAA Football plays you have ever seen, how many involved a head to head collision? None right? Maybe a couple? We don't need the head to head contact in the game, it can be played without it.

When i played football in high school I got a concussion and couldn’t smell shit, couldn’t hear out of my right ear and my coach just told me it would be better in a few days, and I finished the rest of practice and played first string tight end the next day. I knew something wasn’t right with my head but my coach said it was normal so i sucked it up..

Damage in mma is cosmetic.. damage in boxing is internal

I have played both football and rugby and trust me that rugby is much more safer sport than football first of all the tackling is much safer and there are specific type of techniques people use to tackle where in every case is attacking the lower body or legs and anything high in rugby is always gonna be called by the ref, wheras in football u can basically tackle any way u want although using your helmet is illegal the reality it only causes more concussions and more head to head contact, also you have to take into consideration blocking , in football people ram into one another for just blocks in rugby there is no blocking, blocking is probably another major reason football is even more dangerous because in a lot of cases you have o linemen , fullbacks big guys who are usually 250lbs plus run as fast as possible to knock u on ur ass.. and A lot of the time they charge at u using there helmet as a weapon or they lower there helmet once they get close to u

Dave Leduc, World Lethwei Champion, headbutts at 9:40 mark!

People don’t seem to get that 16 ounce gloves coming from a boxer more than likely hurts more than mma fighters with no gloves (coming from a martial artist btw) boxers tend to have more upper body speed and strength

i played through 3 concussions through my highschool football career i got them all through hitting not getting hit. i also played through a minor right knee sprain as running back/linebacker in middle school for our last 2 games. Ironman football literally my team had 13 players and i was one of the top 3-4. Im not saying this to flex btw i regret it and my coach encouraged it. to make it worse the last 2 games both teams had 20+ players and were getting rested. I got away with headhunting the whole duration of 6th-11th grade and the coaches loved it and even some opposing players would respect it. needless to say i definitely not a football advocate anymore especially with how politicized sports have become

Boxing is more Dangerous. Too Many deaths

Ever since CTE blew up with the NFL i was always shocked that boxing and MMA wasn't brought to the forefront and put on the hotseat. This is the first time ive ever even heard someone say anything about CTE in Boxing\ MMA.

I feel that even though mma gloves and boxing gloves produce about the same amount of force that the softer but larger glove contributes more towards concussions because of the extra bounce of the gloves.

idk why im so fascinated with the rendition at 5:24

Much more dangerous. Sparring more often, bigger gloves allow you to keep punching and not hurt your fist. You get hit more to the head in boxing and if you get knocked down, you can just come back up during the count.

Me as a european thinking they were talking about soccer 😅

I'm not too knowledgeable on MMA or boxing but wouldn't boxing be more deadly because the head is targeted 100% of the time. Where in MMA ground game and submissions happen quite often.

In mma you have more control than you do in boxing, meaning you can block more, though in mma you can get head kicked very much and kicks are much harder than punches

I'm an amateur mma fighter. Last fight I got ko'd from a headkick, and had a mild concussion. I've been training and competing for 4 years and that was my first defeat, and first real brain injury. I see my neurologist every other year. My shit is fine lol.

“What’s the difference from hitting from these bones (elbows & legs) and your skull?!?” Joe your brain is in there

Good point for American Football, as in Rugby you don't have all that padding, and clearly concussion cases are way less common.

I would say that Boxing might be a bit worse...WHY? Because in MMA there are many ways to defeat an opponent, that don't include a K.O. i.e. submissions, chokes, where Boxing you are always going for the K.O. (to head)

Damn i remember learning that top of the forehead bizness from a movie in 92 called Gladiator.

It's a pretty blurry line as a parent between MMA and football. It'd be hard to argue one is safe and the other isn't. There are safer options for both, rather than 11 a side in football, play 7 on 7. Rather than MMA, have your kid do a specific discipline that focuses more on grappling than striking (like wrestling).

As a boxing fan I’d say this MMA is safer than boxing Take submissions out of the equation Boxing gloves have more padding than MMA gloves and as such you are less likely to knock them out. However the real injuries that come from combat sports aren’t the one punch knockouts. It’s the 12 round beat downs that aren’t competitive but also aren’t stopped due to the “winning” fighter unable to get the KO partly due to the more padding on the boxing gloves. You’re more likely to get long term damage by getting a sustained beating than getting one punch knocked out

I watched a buddy of mine, who was a former pro soccer player, headbutt a guy unconscious in a bar fight lol. He grabbed the guy by the ears and just slammed the top of his head into the guys face. It was BRUTAL. That wet thud sound is bone chilling.

I watch that Lethwei on Fightpass sometimes. They wait until the bell rings to start the round, then play this god-awful music while they fight. Round over...music stops. Like the worlds most violent game of musical chairs.

I believe that the clinch should be allowed in boxing. Like old school bare knuckle boxing. It should be implemented as a strategic aspect of boxing.

My school would focus sometimes on keeping the helmet away from the person, not trying to get anyone injured

In essence, full contact sports are wild

Mma is unquestionably safer in boxing you spend your entire life from start to finish getting punched in the head being it sparing or fights and your facing guys that only train to do that....in mma your spending half the time grappling in training and even in fights probably only half of them will be against stand up fighters Regardless they all should be respected for risking there lives for us to watch

The evidence definitely suggests Boxing is more dangerous than MMA. But they brought up a good point about sport versus fighting. Boxing is definitely closer to a sport than MMA, but that’s why in my opinion boxing is often more entertaining. Some MMA fights devolve into just clinch work and ground and pound and there aren’t as many visually impressive striking exchanges as in Boxing. That’s not always the case but it’s interesting to see the chaos of fighting compared to the isolated skill sets in a sport.

Its repeated head shots that accumulate that end up killing a trained fighter. It's better to get knocked out in one punch than to endure many hits to the head. The headgear doesnt prevent the brain from bouncing around in the skull. These guys have so much heart. It's sad af. Wrestling is probably the safest combat sport. Though I've seen a teammate get knocked out during a meet, it was bc the other guy did an illegal over the shoulder slam onto my boys back of the head and neck. Controlled slams are a rule in wrestling, at least in high school.

well as someone who has done some boxing and wrestling...the holds are different...clinching is to get a better position and establish dominance to get hold/lock/throw/submission...in boxing usually they lran on the other person with their body weight to wear out the other person and take a rest but that added weight can be more tiresome...and the other person isnt in a stance for that boxer dont have a stance for clinching so they absorb all that leaning...if youre a wrestler once the other person clinches you stance changes and you now switch your mindset over to reversals/escapes then maybe submissions or getting back on your feet...in my experience at least

Never get this many fools on the show at one time.

Deaths in 2019 from MMA = 0 while boxing = 2 checkmate

Hey Joe , check out the RIOHEROES, it was a big deal in the Sao Paulo's streets. An old time no rules, no gloves event in a Grand Prix system. The whole game is different for this no protection situation. More takedowns and ground position and less hard hand striking the face.

I wonder how many councussions i had growing up?? Anybody else remember "getting their bell rang"?? Heard that a lot as a kid

I think mma is more dangerous in the short run and boxing is more dangerous in the long run. In mma youre more likely to get a broken bone that isnt a hand like your leg toes plus the training is more intense thays why mma fighters are always getting injured in training. Boxing you take more damage to just the head for longer periods of time so cte is way more likely

I think Joe Rogan has spectated every form of competitive fighting at least once lol

If football is being played correctly you can minimize risk on at least a pop warner level. You should never slam your head into someone else. You are suppose to tackle at the knees and block with your hands.

Yeah it’s not like 3 fighters died this year may they Rest In Peace

5:27 scared the shit out of me.

Its an amazing feeling putting a helmet and pads on. You feel invincible until you find out, pretty quickly, you aren't. Every hit you take makes you hit harder. When it came to playing defense I just looked to blow up anyone in the way. Thats what youre taught from pee wee. Pretty crazy

The headbutt is super common in Rugby. You don't feel shit doing it but taking the top of someone's head square to the face will knock you on your arse 9 times out of 10.

As an prev MMA and boxer now, mma is more dangerous for dislocations which last for 5 months until lifelong injuries but boxing for the head and then neck even in sparring 10 rounds you need 10-15 days out to recover fully or more than 1 month for hard sparring like a real fight.

The football helmet point is actually pretty reasonable I’ve played football and rugby for five years and have been concussed multiple times in football but never in rugby

the weitght of a glove is underestimated. You can punch a door much harder with a big glove than with a light glove.

Joe and the homies convos are way better! I wish he would have me on.

The traits these violent sports teach young men in particular is important. Masculine men is an essential of a functional society.

Americans: football is soo dangerous Rugby players: dare challenge me mortal

Mma hasnt been around long enough to know the long term effects of mma when compared to boxing

It’s nice to have terrace Crawford recngized he’s one of the best boxers in the world and he’s our buddy here in his home town. Omaha, Nebraska

Boxing is more intense for shure 10 rounds without rest whit every clinch seperated it's hard to keep for 3 rounds. In boxing head buts are more common. IMO i feal that K1show was the ultimate fighter performance

What fight is that in the thumbnail?

Jesus Christ 5:29 scared the ever loving fuck outta me 😂😂

Safer than boxing, which will allow someone to get dropped hard and if they get up and convince the ref they're ok, they can get their head beat in more.

One of the problems with the concussion protocol in the NFL is that players will hide concussions and keep playing.

Lethwei fighters would change the ufc unimaginably if ufc allowed head butts again.

Early football when pads and helmets were less developed was nearly banned due to frequent deaths on the field.

5:28 lol

It’s like the 60’s-70’s music business all over again. Almost all the talent gets screwed in the fight game with notable exceptions and the top 10 earners scew the average so much.

”How come you’re allowed to hit with these bones but not this bone” 😂😂

5:27 LOL

I think it might be because the headbutts are a little much...you can use elbows and knuckles but they draw the line at the head. The bone in your forehead is stronger than concrete and it's too easy to nail someone with your head... genuinely interested...not necessarily that informed but that's my 2 cents

MMA is safer than football

Football players sign contracts and know the risks. They aren't forced to play football. They play it because they LOVE the game!

Kinda hard to say honestly but I do say this. Seems to take a quicker toll on a fighters prime years. I could be completely wrong but it just seems more common in mma to see a guy shoot up in the rankings or even win the belt. Usually aren’t on top for long, usually plagued by injuries as well. I mean it makes sense because you’re using so many different forms using the entire body so entire body breaks down. Says the Random youtube mma expert here. lol

Lmao fighting Nick Dias “CTE motherfucker CTE!” 😂

Yes because it's not just the head and occasional body shot that is being targeted.