Joe Rogan and friends discuss fighters who cut a boatload of weight to be fight-ready: "The guy walked around at 250"

On the March 22, 2025, edition of the JRE Fight Companion, Joe Rogan and his usual group of close friends Brendan Schaub and Eddie Bravo welcomed legendary no-gi grappler Gordon Ryan. Together, the group discussed MMA fighters who cut tremendous weight to compete.

The first name to be brought up by Rogan was reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who is one of the largest lightweights in the world. He is so large, in fact, that he struggled with his weight cut for UFC 284 due to the smaller rehydration window in Australia and was noticeably weaker.

This, though, prompted Bravo to bring one of the few fighters to ever make the great Khabib Nurmagomedov struggle.

"How about Gleison Tibau? He cut to 55 [155 pounds]. That guy walked around at 250 pounds. I think that dude has the record for weight-cutting."

This then caused Ryan to express his astonishment over the fact that former UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira used to fight at middleweight.

"I don't know how Alex Pereira ever made 185."

Check out Joe Rogan and his guests discussing weight-cutting in the UFC (44:28):

The longtime UFC commentator has been open about his own shock over Pereira's ability to make middleweight. The drawbacks of the massive weight cut, though, became apparent the moment the Brazilian power-puncher moved up to light heavyweight, where he is noticeably tougher.

Meanwhile, the Dagestani contingent in MMA is often accused of being weight bullies, with Colby Covington, in particular, fielding that criticism given that he fights at his natural weight class.

---

Joe Rogan previously pushed for Alex Pereira to fight at heavyweight

The topic of Jon Jones' next opponent was all the rage throughout 2024, especially with both Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall dominating their opponents. While many were eager to watch the Englishman, who is the interim heavyweight champion face 'Bones,' Joe Rogan supported the idea of 'Poatan' doing so.

"One of the things that's been discussed is you potentially moving up to heavyweight. Is that something we will see from you in the future?"

Check out Joe Rogan bringing up Alex Pereira's heavyweight plans (2:19):

Pereira had an extremely dominant run in 2024, TKO'ing everyone who stood before him as he defended the light heavyweight title. He thereafter expressed an interest in moving up to heavyweight to face Jones, which Rogan was a massive proponent of.

Unfortunately for 'Poatan,' his heavyweight plans were dashed by Magomed Ankalaev, who dethroned him as light heavyweight champion at UFC 313.