Joe Rogan - Ari Shaffir on Smoking Weed with Jon Jones

It was a good fight for as long as it landed. Long as it lasted, brother. One of the cool things that we've gotten is the ability to hang out casually with these fighters. Like having just breakfast with Randy, seeing him, having enough times with you that I remember one time I was going into a buffet or whatever, or the hotel, like free breakfast, and looking around and just having him go like, hey, can you sit with me? Yeah. I'm like, oh, okay. I know, right? You're just such sought after, and I'm just like, I'm talking about nothing. But some of my favorites were in Chicago, going to the weigh-ins, and then like, let's go to the show, and then just drunk driving with Cle Guido. Just, I'm like, I'll drive you. And just, it's his city. It's his city. Yeah. And he's like, come with me. And we're like, okay. And you white knuckling holding onto the front seat as he's swerving with a brown paper bag. He drives like he fights. And I'm just like, I accept that. So either way, it doesn't matter. And he's just going for it on these highways that he knows. And then I believe the rain. And it was just like, it was just like so fun. Yeah, good times. Another one that I remember early on, John Jones. He wasn't anything then. He was 4-0 maybe, something like that. Meeting him, talking about shit. And I could talk about this now because it's not no longer a banned substance in the UFC, but like talking about weed. Yeah. Yeah, let's smoke, bro. He wasn't anything. He wasn't anything. And just going like, he's like, who's got weed? I'm like, oh, Rogan's got it, but he's in his hotel room. And texting you, flip phone texting you. Back when it wasn't cool, you know, hip to have a flip phone, where it was like, that's all anybody had. That's how long ago. And then just going like, maybe it's then. Maybe it was early iPhone. But like, just going, hey man, are you up? And you're like, yeah, I'm kind of tired. I'm going to sleep. And he was like, fuck John. I think he doesn't want us up there. And then like, no, no, let's go. He's got the weed. Let's go. Because some fan gave it to us, right? You had this fucking tin foil of weed. And just knocking at your door. And you're like, what? And you're like, you were tired. And it was like, do you have that weed? Like, dude, come on, I want to go to sleep. It's like, man, John want to smoke. And you're like, you looked at us. You opened the door fully. You looked at me and this young fighter. And you were like, come on in. And we all smoked pot together in this hotel room and fucking wherever it was. I think Montreal actually. I think it was Montreal. Yeah. And just a fun time. And then seeing this guy move on to become the baddest motherfucker on the planet. Well, we also had a conversation with him about, I wanted him to go to a different camp. That's right. He was training in fucking YouTube videos in New York. With his buddies in a garage. You're too good, Mike. You should be in a real camp. That's right. We had that over weed in the hotel room. He's like, you really think so? I go, I know so. I know. I go, you only have a certain amount of time in this thing. I go, and your time should be invested with a real coach. Who's gonna hone your skills. I go, you could be an all time great, man. Wow. Yeah, I remember telling him that. He's like, you really think so? I go, I know so. I know so. You really gotta move on. I forgot about that part of it. How influential was that in the fucking future of mixed martial arts? I hope it helped. He did. He went to Winkle John. Jackson Winkle John. Eventually. I mean, he probably, he might've done it anyway. He might've. Who knows? But I think it was a good conversation to have with a young guy. I was like, listen, man. You have real talent. You could really be something. But you gotta be coached by guys who are gonna find out your tendencies. Your bouncing technique isn't gonna go take you that far. Well, I mean, fucking, he was so good. Who knows how far? He might've been a world champion, even with the camp that he was in. He was so good. And his wrestling is so powerful. And he's so physically talented. But it made a big difference for him to go to Jackson's and be able to train on a regular basis with world class fighters. Be in there on a daily basis with Carlos Condit, who was at the top of his game back then. That's right. I mean, Keith Jardine. And they just had a massive group of killers. They had, but take home, they called it the ring of fire. Where you'd go five rounds of sparring to get ready for a fight with a different high level, I mean, highest level fighter. So like Nate Marquardt, like cool, that was round one. Get out of here, Jardine, you come in. And now I just finished a fucking round with Nate Marquardt. Now I gotta go with Keith Jardine. Cool, round three, Jardine, get out. John Jones, you come in. And it's like, what? I mean, the training you got there at Craig Jackson's camp, we're like, oh. Yeah, I mean, look, there's a reason why so many extremely high level fighters are coming out of there. And then Rashad Evans was there as well too. And Rashad had a real problem with John coming there. Because Rashad was like, hey, this guy's in my weight class. Yeah, but what are you gonna do? I have one guy in his weight class. Right, it's an issue. Yeah, and then Rashad and John became friends. And then they did fight. Did they what? Yeah, they fought and John beat the shit out of them. I don't remember that. They fought after they had a big falling out because Rashad was upset that John wound up, John wound up getting a title shot and beat Shogun because Rashad got injured. Rashad was supposed to get the title shot. John steps in and they were friends at the time. And then somewhere along the line, then the trash talk started, I'll fight Rashad, fuck it. And then it was like, man, I thought we were friends. Oh yeah, that's back when it was like, you guys can fight as friends. You don't have to be at enemies with everybody, fight. It's a sport and it's a money thing. And then when John beat him, it was a real drubbing. And it was five rounds, it was a decision. And it was a real clear cut, unanimous decision. He did some crazy shit to him, like step in elbow to the face. Oh yeah, I kind of do remember this one now. This was John when he was developing. It wasn't even John like the John that knocked out DC. I remember him saying in fights that I didn't really ever see this with the fighters where he would talk about after wins, talking about the holes, the fuck ups he had, more than what he did right. Whereas most guys would be braggadocious, and be like, I loved it. But it was like. He was upset at things that went wrong. Yeah, I guess I gotta cover that up. That could get exposed. That could, you know. John's a fucking smart dude. I mean, as reckless and chaotic as he is. And I've said this before that I don't know what causes that kind of recklessness, but there is a direct correlation between traumatic brain injury, brain damage, and impulsive behavior and recklessness. It's a fact, it's well researched, it's well documented in neuroscience. They know that there's a connection. I don't wanna exonerate him from his past behavior, but we see that in football players, we see that in BMX riders that go crazy and fucking land on their head a bunch of times. People, they get crazy. They get wild and impulsive. It's just a fact, it's just a part of the game. Those people that engage in any kind of an activity where your brain gets rattled on a regular basis, you are way more likely to do ridiculous things that don't make any sense. Oh, that doesn't make sense. Yeah, it does. That's what I said about John, I didn't talk to John about it. I know John was upset with me after one of those things. Before, we actually did a podcast together. He was upset and I said, listen man, I have to be honest.