Joe Rogan | Is it Better to be a Specialist in MMA? w/Khalil Rountree

Do you know the HillHook game? Not enough to really play it, but I spent a little bit of time picking the brains of people who are good. I like it. I enjoy it. I think I can actually get pretty good at it. It's like the basics of it seems pretty simple. It's just a matter of getting comfortable there. Because I feel like my knees are just... I don't want to risk it. You know what I mean? Let's play this game a little bit. But if I find a partner that's not an asshole and just really wants to learn together or whatever, then I'll do it. I'll go after it. Do you ever see yourself doing jiu-jitsu matches or anything like that? Yeah, I've only done maybe three in my life. Yeah. Yeah, I did one. My last jiu-jitsu competition was probably two years ago, two and a half years ago. Naga. It was random. Just like a random like, oh, okay, I'll do naga today. Well, there are some MMA fighters that are at a high enough level of grappling that they can compete against really elite grapplers in jiu-jitsu matches. Yeah. Like Chad Mendez. Remember he had that match with Jeff... Fuck. Why am I blanking on his name? Not Jeff Glover. Jeff Glover. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah, I think he choked him out. Chad Mendez choked out Jeff Glover. I think he took his back and tapped him. Yeah. Oh, wow. I think they were using the Eddie Bravo invitational rules. Make sure that's true. Ah. Which you start on someone's back. Yeah. You know, in overtime. Yeah. You go to a certain distance. Is that the Chael Sunnens'... It is. It's Chael Sunnens' organization. In which case, I'm pretty sure they use the EBI rules. So he got his back through sort of in one of those overtime positions. But he still tapped him. And the other one is Uriah Faber. Uriah Faber is pretty fucking elite. Pretty fucking elite. Like Jeff Glover is an animal. Oh my God. I love that guy. Super, super technical. You know, and very dangerous. And relaxed, right? Big time stoner. Yeah. So they must have set him up on his back. This doesn't show it. It just shows him have the back. Man, that's a hell of a fucking Reneegan right there. That works all day on everybody. Even a Jeff Glover. Wow. And that's why Jiu-Jitsu works. You know, if you're elite, it'll work. Save your ass. Yeah. Three by overtime submission. So we were correct. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a few guys, but it's really hard to be the master of everything, right? Yeah, for sure. So for you, is there a balance where you're like, am I spending enough time grappling? Am I spending enough time striking? Do you ever like wonder what the correct formula is or do you tinker with it at all? I have wondered and I always wonder, but I can't like, so a long time ago, maybe like a few years ago, Anderson told me like, listen. Just, you need Jiu-Jitsu, like you need it. And he's like, it saved my life. I love to strike too, but when I learned Jiu-Jitsu, it changed my life. So you need to learn it. Put on a gi. Let's roll like right there in the living room, you know? And I was just like, okay. So one of the things that I learned from him is just, he's like, learn the basic stuff, get really good at it, and then like use it to save yourself and you'll end up growing. He's like, just keep training Jiu-Jitsu. You don't need this whole crazy secret system at the moment. Just make sure that you're training Jiu-Jitsu and continue to learn Jiu-Jitsu, you know? So that's kind of my takeaway from the conversation. So I just make sure that when I'm training, at least I'm doing Jiu-Jitsu. I focus on it, make sure that I'm getting better, make sure that I'm going with guys that are way better than me. So I'm always getting my ass kicked, but at least I'm always going with guys that are better than me all the time. And I enjoy it, but I'm a striker. That's it. I enjoy it. I know that I need it. It's my job. I know that it can get dangerous if I go against, you know, if I go against a guy who's a high level Jiu-Jitsu, I know that. I understand that. And I'm very aware of it every time that I train. And so I make sure that I do my job and I go to Jiu-Jitsu class, but I'm a striker and I'm always going to be focused on. That's always going to be what like my go-to. Anybody, whether it's a striker, a grappler, I don't care. I'm going to train striking and I'm going to train Jiu-Jitsu too, but I'm going to my striking always. Do you think that that is like you're letting everybody know? Are you trying to trick people and then next, next fight you're going to shoot on folks? Oh, I don't need to shoot. I'll shoot if I need to. Like if I'm getting my ass kicked and I need to take a desperation shot, but you would rather just let them know that you're coming out striking because one of the things I believe you do and you're very good at it. But one of the things that's interesting about real high level MMA, when you look at the guys who were bent, who've been like legendarily successful, like George St. Pierre or Mighty Mouse, two great examples. One of the things is you never knew what the fuck they were going to do to you. And that overloading the mind with possibilities is a part of their success. It's like how much of a part? It's a good question. Do you think that there's an argument for using the skills that you have, which are quite spectacular with that sort of style, sort of style that incorporates way more takedowns, way more takedown attempts, way more feints, just different combinations of things so you never know what the fuck is happening at any given time? Or do you think that it's better to just be the best striker you can and that'll be enough? You stop those takedowns, that'll be enough. For me? For you? Or just in general? For you? For you? I think for me, it would be the best to just be the best striker. Just because you enjoy it that much more. I enjoy it that much more. You know, I think, yeah, I enjoy that much more. I still have a lot to learn, a lot to grow, so it's always going to get better. I don't think that it's going to get bad. I'm still learning a lot, especially what you guys got to see a few weeks ago. That's only the beginning. Everything even before that was non-existent compared to the type of training that I've been doing. I'm really excited. I'm like, yeah, Muay Thai is a lot more than just punch kicks and elbows, and that's all the striking. It's a mind game. So you're just so infatuated by it right now. You just want to focus on 100%. Yeah. There's guys like... Think about Michael Vinden Page, right? Before he fought Paul Daley. I'm sure that guy trains a lot of grappling as well. It shows, if he gets in positions, he's knocked out guys from weird positions. But when people watch him fight, they want to see... They trust in his stand up. They're like, oh, this guy's going to do some crazy stuff. I want to be able to do the same thing. Not crazy, whirly stuff, but when people watch me fight, they know what to expect. That's just bulletproof striking.