Joe Rogan And Israel Adesanya Heap Praise On ONE Championship's Fight Format

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Podcast pioneer and combat sports enthusiast Joe Rogan has never been shy about expressing his views, and he recently gave kudos to ONE Championship for finding a niche in the world of prizefighting.

Rogan spoke with former UFC Middleweight World Champion Israel Adesanya on episode #164 of the Joe Rogan Experience's MMA show, and they discussed their interest in the world's largest martial arts organization and how it is ahead of the curve with housing all the best combat sports under one roof.

"I like how ONE has everything. They have grappling, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA matches. I think that is the way to go. People love stand-up fights," Rogan said.

"In Muay Thai and kickboxing, there's no grappling, so you're forced to stand up. Then you can attract the greatest strikers in the world like ONE are doing. They're getting all these Thai killers like Rodtang. They're coming over and fighting in the cage now and it's so much different in the small gloves."

His guest, Adesanya, was one of the millions who watched ONE 168 - ONE Championship's second live show in the U.S, which took place inside Denver, Colorado's Ball Arena - in early September.

As a former world-class kickboxer in GLORY, the New Zealand-based star pays plenty of attention to the world outside of the UFC, and he was blown away by the caliber of fights at the event.

"They just did ONE 168 in Denver recently," 'The Last Stylebender' Adesanya said.
"It went really well, and the fights were crazy. There were lots of knockdowns and action-packed fights."

ONE announced its 2025 schedule last week, and it looks like there will be two more events in North America coming up next year. The first is set for May 23, and the second will go down on December 5. No further details have been released.