Speaking this week on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience featuring undefeated boxing champion Terence Crawford, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan shared pointed criticism of the UFC’s current championship structure, arguing that the promotion should expand its number of weight classes to curb extreme weight cutting and create more opportunities for fighters.
Rogan contended that the limited number of divisions in mixed martial arts has led to unhealthy weight cuts and restricted upward mobility for elite competitors.
“I think for MMA, they really need to recognize this, that one of the things that's going to stop weight cuts is give people more weight classes, give people more options,” Rogan said. “This idea of only having eight champions, I think, in MMA is very, very limiting. It's also limiting the potential of a guy like you to go up and up and up and win championship after championship.”
Currently, the UFC crowns champions across a defined set of men’s and women’s divisions. Rogan believes that structure reduces flexibility for athletes whose natural body weight may fall between existing limits.
“In MMA, if you win two belts, that's crazy. That's the only thing anybody's ever done,” Rogan said. “The only people that have ever done it have done it in two weight classes. No one's done it in three.”
He pointed to reigning light heavyweight champion (and former middleweight titleholder) Alex Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) as a potential example of how expanded divisions could create new opportunities. “Pereira might try to do it at heavyweight. He might try to go up to heavyweight now because he's walking around like 240, which is crazy because he used to fight at 185. It's nuts.”
Beyond competitive legacy, Rogan emphasized fighter safety. “If they had more options and they had more weight classes, I think we'd have more competitive fights. We'd have less extreme weight cutting. We'd have healthier fighters. Just more champions is better. There's a lot of guys that could be champions. There's not a weight class for them.”
