Midnight Mania! Rogan Names Pound-For-Pound King

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UFC color commentator Joe Rogan believes there’s a clear choice for the top p…


UFC 273: Volkanovski v The Korean
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

UFC color commentator Joe Rogan believes there’s a clear choice for the top pound-for-pound fighter on the planet right now. Though he’s previously declared Jon Jones the greatest of all time, he’s giving the current title to Featherweight kingpin Alexander Volkanovski, despite his competitive loss to Islam Makhachev earlier this year.

“He’s No. 1 pound-for-pound,” Rogan said of Volkanovski (via MMAFighting.com). “They have him as not pound-for-pound [No. 1 in the UFC] because he lost that fight [to Islam Makhachev]. I think you could make a real argument that he won that fight. I think he won the fight. In my mind, he won the fight.”

“He did more damage,” Rogan continued. “I think he imposed his skill set. It’s also insanely impressive that he goes up from [featherweight] to fight a massive [lightweight]. That guy is as big at [155 pounds] as anybody is, and at the end of the fight, [Volkanovski] is on top beating him up.

“He drops him, gets on top of him and had massive moments throughout the fight.”

Indeed, Rogan was stunned when Makhachev was named the victor over Volkanovski at UFC 284. Currently, Volkanovski stands at No. 2 on the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings, sandwiched between Jones and Makhachev in that order.

Volkanovski is still working to earn a second shot at Makhachev to really prove himself the better man. At 145-pounds, however, his greatness is not up for debate. The Australian champion has won 11 straight at Featherweight, defending his belt five times in the process. If he can handle streaking Spanish contender Ilia Topuria in his next defense, he’s pretty effectively cleared out the division and can fully focus on Lightweight gold.

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