JRE MMA Show #19 with Vinny Shoreman & Liam Harrison

Joe Rogan (0:04)

Boom, and we're live with my pal Vinny Shoreman, an eight time world Muay Thai champion, Liam Harrison.

Liam Harrison (0:10)

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Fuck yeah, dude, great to be here. Great to see you guys, too.

Vinny Shoreman (0:13)

Yeah, we love it.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Listen, man, I'm a big fan of all combat sports, but I really believe that if there's one sport that doesn't get it to do, it's Muay Thai. I really don't understand why it hasn't taken off in America. I don't get it. I love boxing, boxing's a lot of fun.

I think Muay Thai is twice as fun.

Liam Harrison (0:30)

Yeah, it's twice as hard as well, I think. I mean, I fought pro boxing, and I've had over 100 Muay Thai fights. It's definitely a lot harder. I mean, it is getting more mainstream now, along with the MMA, because most of the top MMA fighters are doing Muay Thai for the standup, but it's still not where it needs to be, and nowhere near.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

It's weird, right?

Vinny Shoreman (0:48)

Yeah, I mean, I think what puts a lot of people off Muay Thai is the, maybe the two-minute break, and also the-

Joe Rogan (0:56)

Two-minute break in between rounds?

Vinny Shoreman (0:58)

Yeah, and the traditional music and stuff like that. People find that hard to take too, really, which is, I mean, I love it, so I don't see that problem, but I can see outside the box with that as well.

Joe Rogan (1:07)

Well, I feel like the two-minute break gives guys more of a chance to recover, which makes the fights more exciting. You have more energy.

And I don't care about the dance, the Y Crew. That doesn't bother me.

Vinny Shoreman (1:18)

Yeah, but you're a fan, aren't you? You're a martial arts fan. I mean, just sit down and watch the bears.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

Baseball's so fucking boring. It's crazy how boring it is.

Liam Harrison (1:26)

A lot of shows in England now, they've started to cut out all the traditional stuff. There's no Ramune, no Y Crew. You get in the ring, your face off, bell goes straight away. So they're trying to cut little aspects of it out just to make it more media, fan-friendly, really.

Joe Rogan (1:39)

Yeah, we should probably explain to people that don't know what we're talking about. The dance that they do, it's called the Y Crew, right?

Vinny Shoreman (1:45)

Yeah, the Ramwire.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

And what is the headband that they put on? What is that?

Liam Harrison (1:49)

The Mong Kong.

Joe Rogan (1:50)

That's the Mong Kong. And when you're doing the dance, the idea is like to warm up.

Vinny Shoreman (1:57)

Yeah, there's lots of different reasons why these different camps believe different things. It's mainly to do with Buddhism.

Seating the ring and then taking, with plain respect to your gym, your coaches, your parents, et cetera, isn't it, Liam?

Liam Harrison (2:09)

Yeah, I mean, I enjoy doing it. It sort of prepares me mentally for what's about to happen.

I've done it in nearly all my 108 fights. Only the odd one or two where I've missed it when that's only been because I've been told by the promoters, right, no Ramwire. I enjoy doing it, but like Vinny said, like some people who come to watch it, they just want to see fights. They don't want to see that aspect of the sport as well. They just want to see people getting torn up.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

And in case anybody didn't catch that through that dense accent, he just said 108 fights.

That's fucking crazy, man. That's a lot of fights.

Liam Harrison (2:39)

It is for a Westerner, but a lot of the ties I'm coming across, there are 200, 300 plus. I remember last year I fought a tie, and they said, oh, Liam's had 100 fights. That is a lot, what do you think? And he said, I'd had 100 fights when I was 15 years old.

Yeah, that was Singh Damu said that about it.

Joe Rogan (2:57)

100 fights when he was 15, how's that even possible?

Liam Harrison (3:00)

I'm not sure.

Vinny Shoreman (3:01)

He must have been fighting every week.

Joe Rogan (3:02)

Yeah, 52 weeks a year.

Vinny Shoreman (3:04)

Well, it's a living, isn't it? So if they don't eat, in Thailand, if you don't fight, you don't eat, so see ya. There's no welfare or anything like that, so they have to do that.

Joe Rogan (3:13)

I had a former UFC champion, Pat Miletich, in yesterday, and we were talking about Muay Thai and how crazy it is that this one place, Thailand, developed this completely effective style. Like, they changed the way people fight. I mean, they really did. If you look at all the other martial arts, whether it's karate or kung fu or anything else, they figured it out.