Joe Rogan Warned Chimaev About Wrestling After the Title Loss — He Was Already Booked Anyway

Joe Rogan went on his podcast and spelled out a specific injury concern about Khamzat Chimaev's decision to compete in freestyle wrestling just six weeks after losing the UFC middleweight title. By the time Rogan finished naming that concern, Chimaev was already locked in for RAF 10 on June 13 in St. Louis — a catchweight wrestling match against Dillon Danis. The concern was legitimate. The booking was already done.

On The Joe Rogan Experience, the UFC commentator broke down why he thought Chimaev stepping into freestyle wrestling so soon after the title fight was a terrible idea. The worry wasn't about Chimaev's wrestling ability or his takedown timing—Rogan explicitly acknowledged those were "f***ing insane." The fear was purely about what happens to joints when athletes compete at full speed in a sport that doesn't allow the angle management MMA provides. "Wrestlers blow their knees out all the time," Rogan said. "It's just a part of the craziness of explosive movement. The guy is trying to avoid the takedown, and he catches his knee in a weird way, and it blows out."

That warning came after the UFC 328 main event on May 10, when Chimaev lost the middleweight belt to Sean Strickland in a split decision. Two judges scored it 48-47 for Strickland; one had Chimaev. Thirteen of 24 media scorecards had Chimaev winning. Close enough to sting. Close enough that losing made sense only if you believed something was mechanically wrong.

What made Rogan's concern specifically pointed was the context surrounding that title fight. Arman Tsarukyan had publicly claimed Chimaev cut 46 pounds to make 185 pounds. Bryce Mitchell filed a police report over the weight cut. That number—46 pounds—means Chimaev was walking around somewhere north of 230 pounds, competing against middleweights who typically sit at 210 to 215. The UFC didn't open an investigation. Chimaev made weight. He competed. He lost.

After the loss, Chimaev walked out of the arena without speaking. He posted "See you soon" directed at Strickland on social media, went quiet for a day, then released a video statement to the camera. "What Allah has decided is no longer in our control," he said. He also mentioned forgiving Strickland. Then his team announced the wrestling booking.

June 13. RAF 10. Dillon Danis. A catchweight wrestling match six weeks after a title fight that followed a brutal weight cut that followed five championship rounds.

Rogan's specific concern made sense because he's been cage-side for hundreds of UFC events. He's watched what happens when athletes make the wrong call about timing. This wasn't vague speculation about general risk. It was naming a specific injury vector—knee ligaments under load during explosive mat wrestling—at a specific moment when an athlete's injury margins were at their thinnest. One month after five title-fight rounds and a 46-pound cut, the body isn't running at the condition needed to sustain the joint stress that freestyle wrestling demands.

The implied argument from Chimaev's side was that wrestling didn't fail him at UFC 328. The weight cut did. The narrative his camp wanted to build was: sign a wrestling match against a credible opponent, win it cleanly, and put to rest any doubts about whether he can function in that domain. The rematch with Strickland—ESPN's Brett Okamoto reported it's "the only fight Chimaev will accept right now"—has to wait until the wrestling question gets answered. Or so the logic went.

But Rogan had pointed at the actual problem: what you believe about your wrestling and what your knees can physically handle in June are two separate equations. The risk wasn't theoretical.

The Question of Danis Actually Showing Up

What made Rogan's warning even more relevant was who Chimaev was supposed to face. Dillon Danis has a track record that makes booking him feel like an act of faith in unlikely outcomes.

Danis has cancelled or withdrawn from four consecutive competitive appearances. RAF promoted a contingency plan for a previous Danis booking three weeks before the event—which tells you exactly what the promotion expected from him. He then showed up, lost to Colby Covington 14-4 in that match, and bailed on the next two scheduled fights. A booking with Belal Muhammad fell apart after Danis reportedly demanded a 15-week training camp specifically for a wrestling match. His Craig Jones CJI 3 fight remained listed as TBD, a status it held long enough that the MMA community stopped treating it as an imminent event.

The odds of Danis actually competing on June 13 became a genuine question mark in itself.

Rogan worried about Chimaev's knees under the assumption that an explosive wrestling match would actually take place. Danis's recent track record made even that assumption questionable. The most prolific non-show in combat sports doesn't inspire confidence in any timeline where a full-speed wrestling match happens on schedule.

So Rogan's concern—specific, anatomically grounded, based on legitimate observation of what wrestling does to recovering fighters—was technically sound. But it was also built on the assumption that this booking would actually go to plan. History suggested that might have been overthinking it.

Why Chimaev Makes These Moves

Chimaev has never been good at sitting still. He built his UFC career on a specific formula: take fights on short notice, fill slots other fighters wouldn't accept, trust that being harder to deal with than whoever was across from him would carry him forward. It worked for eight consecutive wins.

Then it stopped working on May 10.

The RAF booking wasn't a departure from that system. It was the same system running on a different output. His camp was pushing hard for an immediate Strickland rematch. ESPN reported it was the only fight he'd accept. The UFC hadn't moved on booking it. In the gap between the loss he wanted to avenge and the title shot that didn't exist yet, Chimaev's team signed him to a wrestling match against the sport's most reliable cancellation candidate.

Chimaev's career identity has always been about forward motion and refusing to accept limits on what he should or shouldn't do next. That identity didn't change just because a title fight didn't go his way. If anything, it kicked into higher gear. The wrestling booking was both a statement about his confidence in his abilities and a way to stay visible and competitive while waiting for the Strickland rematch that might eventually materialize.

The problem Rogan named—that a body recovering from a title fight and a severe weight cut doesn't have the injury margins to safely compete in explosive wrestling—was accurate. Chimaev's answer was to already have a venue, a date, and an opponent locked in. The calculation was his to make. Rogan was simply naming the risk.

Then again, neither was Danis going to actually show up anyway. So maybe everyone's worried about the wrong problem.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Sources

• Joe Rogan Warns Khamzat Chimaev About Competing At RAF: 'Here Is My Fear...'
• Khamzat Chimaev breaks his silence after losing belt to Sean Strickland at UFC 328
• Khamzat Chimaev to make RAF 10 debut against Dillon Danis weeks after losing UFC title
• Why Joe Rogan is concerned about Khamzat Chimaev competing at RAF 10 after UFC 328 loss