Everyone is talking about the upcoming mixed rules fight between Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Demetrious Johnson. Even Joe Rogan got in on the act discussing the ONE: ‘X’ matchup on a recent podcast,
“That’s a wild fight because the first round is Muay Thai. And Rodtang is an elite Muay Thai guy. Rodtang says he’s going to finish him in the first round, that it’s never going to make it to the MMA portion of the fight.”
Rogan was cage side to see ‘DJ’ during his heyday when he made a record breaking 12 defences of his UFC flyweight title. But he is less familiar with Rodtang and was impressed by the Thai fighters record,
“Jesus Christ, how many is that? 267 wins, 42 losses, and 10 draws. That is crazy. That is fu**ing crazy.”
While mixed martial artists are lucky if they get to compete more than two or three times in a calendar year Muay Thai fighters will fight every month if they can. As a result they end up racking up 100s of fights at a young age and Rogan was blown away by the level of Rodtang’s experience,
“Look at that fu**ing record. Few reds on there, but not many (referring to Rodtang’s defeats). That’s a lot of experience.”
