How Joe Rogan Got Into the UFC

Because if I was working for a more sensitive organization, you know, obviously it's a fucking cage fighting Promotions like how sensitive can you get? Yeah, but with some social issues, you know, this like if I was working for the NBA I probably been fired a decade ago Yeah, the MMA is definitely a or the UFC is definitely an animal in itself How did how did you get? Into that position did you know the Dana White and you started? For you, I always wanted to ask you this in at the Comedy Store How did you become kind of the voice of of the UFC? Well, I started in 1997 I was the post fight interviewer that was it was just a position that was available and the UFC was very small back then very few People knew what it was. It was off a cable. You couldn't get it on cable. You could only get on satellite and They needed someone to do post fight interviews. So you were in that world to begin with I was in the martial arts world You know, I used to teach martial arts for a living before I became a comedian. I used to fight Fought a lot of Taekwondo tournaments and had some kickboxing fights and I'd always been a martial artist since I was a kid And so I just was interested in watching the UFC and then I started training in jiu-jitsu And when I was training in jiu-jitsu, I was just a white belt. I was just starting out That's when I got hired by the UFC to be a post fight interviewer But I only did that for two years and then I quit was just too much and it was actually like it was I Was losing money. I would make more money Doing a weekend at a comedy club than I would doing it doing the UFC and it just got to a point was just it Was too much of a pain in the ass. And so I still remained a fan, but I backed away And then the UFC was purchased by this company called Zuffa in 2001 and when that happened They started putting on shows in Vegas and I would go there with my friends They got me free tickets they reached out and they would try to get celebrities to go sit there So that it would if they would because they were very small at the time and they were trying to they were hemorrhaging money They were trying to build it up and in talking to Dana white one day, you know I was talking to him about fights going on in Japan. I'm like, have you ever seen Sato fight? Do you know what what do you do? You know Sakurah? Do you know this guy and I was bringing all these names and he was like, do you want to do commentary? I'm like, I don't want to do commentary man. I'm here to get drunk and watch people kick the shit out of each other I'm not here to work and he talked me into it for one show a UFC 37 and a half It was a show that was on one of those Fox Sports networks was smaller networks and I think was the best damn sports show period was a part of it I did that and the rest is history Wow, and then I did like 12 of them for free like the UFC didn't have any money They were hemorrhaging money and they had there were rich people that owned it, but it was not a profitable venture Yeah, and I said look just get me there get me my friends tickets and I'll do it And so that's how I operated for like like over a year and then I just became the commentator It's just weird. That's crazy. It's just Dana white. He's a crazy man And he's uh, he's got a you know, weird way of looking at things that that's very effective and in his crazy mind He's like, let's take this guy who's never even thought about being a commentator and make him our commentator I mean, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing I mean, I really didn't I didn't have any training at all in sports commentary I just would see what was happening and start talking about it, you know, which is really like the wrong I was more even play by play and color It was like doing both of them at the same time was really weird. And as far as you doing that, do you? get any notes from Anybody going hey Joe try this try that or you just develop that whole that voice all on your own 100% of my own so the only thing that I had was There's like mark de la grata. He was a good friend of mine. He is He's a one of the top trainers in the world He's in the truck and I can communicate with him There's a button where I can communicate with him and we talk about stuff Like I can say does he look like he's limping to you and he's like, yeah, there's something wrong with his leg I go the left leg, right? He's like, yeah, yeah, and then I'll start talking about it Like I'll be able to bounce it back on him or sometimes I just it's obvious and I'll say it myself Then I'll ask him like am I wrong? Is he dropping his hand or is this like is a nice It's a nice thing to have someone to bounce things off It used to be Eddie Bravo Eddie Bravo used to do it as well where I would Be able to talk to him about certain positions because he would be in the truck and I'd be able to ask him like Which his left legs in jeopardy right now, right or he needs to step over with his right leg We'd be able to go over because like there's some aspects of martial arts that are extremely technical Especially jujitsu when things go to the ground and you're trying to commentary do commentary and I have to decipher Which is his left leg which is his right leg? Where's he tied up? Where's he tangled and I'm doing in real time while I'm trying to be entertaining and talking very complicated, you know But nobody taught me how to do it I just figured out how to do it and you're not looking at like a Jim Lamply or anybody in the broadcasting world when it comes to fights of Or you this is something that you developed on your own Like sometimes you look as a comedian you look at other comedians say the Friars or yeah, Collins or whatnot You didn't have a kind of like a mentor. No, not necessarily because there wasn't one There wasn't a lot of guys that did it in For martial arts commentary there was John Paretti who was excellent. He was one of the very best who was actually the UFC matchmaker and a commentator when I first started He was very good There's a guy named Jeff Armstrong. He was very good, too He was there when I first started to he actually ran a promotion called hook and shoot. He's excellent He really knows what he's doing. And then there's a few other guys, you know that also did it There's like what I do as far as like Stan doing Commentary for MMA. There's might maybe ten guys in the world to do it Yeah, you know that really do it on a high level maybe ten guys Wow, I mean between 1 FC between You know brave and then the UFC Bellator Pfl there's maybe maybe ten guys on the planet that are doing it Just not a lot of people and there's a lot in the UFC now where fighters are now transitioning to become Commentators and oftentimes they're the best at it like Michael Bisping just did this past weekend He was the UFC middleweight champion and he's awesome at it already did one one show They know more obviously because they've been in there, you know They have that added element of actually having fought in the UFC, which is gigantic Yeah, I could see I think Paulie Malinage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He seems to be very very fantastic He's very good. He's very good very technical but also very aware and fighters can see things that maybe the average person Can't see like they see when someone's slowing down. They see when someone's laying back They see when someone got hurt to the body They see like little things that maybe a person who's never fought before doesn't see