Joe Rogan | KO'ing People Doesn't Feel Good w/Kevin Smith

It's to me, it hits home because I needed to know when I needed to retire too. When I stopped fighting, I knew, I was like, I am not doing this the way I used to do this. You know, I used to be completely obsessed, but I saw a bunch of people get knocked out. I knocked a bunch of people out. I knew that that easily could have been me. What does it feel like to knock somebody out? It's weird. It's a bittersweet feeling. Like, you don't feel good. If you were in a true combat position, it would feel good. Well, fighting for your life, you mean? Yeah. Competition. I mean, it was all people my age, you know? Like, I was 19, 20 years old, and I'm standing over this unconscious version of me, you know, that I just kicked in the head. And that's how the person went in. Yeah, the amount of force you can generate with a kick is just so terrifying. It's so terrifying, you know, to think that that's going to bounce off your head, and the lights go out, and then you could incur legitimate permanent brain damage from something like that. Absolutely. Is it in the initial kick or in the hit of the drops of the canvas? Both. This is the kick. Somebody kicks you in the head. Somebody who really knows how to kick, they bounce a fucking shin off your temple. You might not ever be the same again. That's real. And you've been knocked out? I've never been knocked out. I've been stopped, which means I got TKO'd. I got dropped with a punch, and then the guy followed up with a bunch of punches, and the referee stopped the fight. That was the last fight I ever had. That's a lot of detail. Slow it down. Yeah, I was in a kickboxing fight. Actually, it was three fights in a day. I won the first two. I won the first one by knockout. I beat the fuck out of the second guy, and I was pretty sick actually going into the fight, going into the turn. I would get sick sometimes because I'd be nervous and shit. My nutrition was terrible. And then the third fight, I got hit with a left hook. I won the first round, and then the second round, I got hit with a left hook, and my legs just went, boink! They just stopped working. I remember going, what the fuck? Shit. I could never have been dropped like that before, where my legs just... He was a perfect left hook. He just caught me, right on the chin. If it catches you on the chin, what's happening? It's like something happens. It connects into the brain. It twists your brain, right? And your brain, it also does something that's like nerves behind your jaw, and when you get hit hard, it's like an electrical charge goes into your body and everything just shuts off. It's weird. I was totally conscious, but my legs just stopped working. And then while that's happening, more punches are coming? No, because kickboxing was an MMA. In MMA, the guy would jump on you and they'd stop it right there. Or you would maybe grab ahold of them and maybe you would survive, maybe you wouldn't. There's arguments that it's safer in MMA because they stop it quicker. There's also arguments that when it goes to the ground, you could actually survive better, you could hold on, and maybe that would allow you to take more damage and maybe that's not as safe. I'm in the former camp. I think it's safer. Because I think when fights get stopped quicker, it's safer. But so when I got up... So when you got jolted and electricity went through, did you go down? Yeah, I went down. My legs just stopped working like this, like I'm standing up. He hit me and then I just go, plink. So you went down S under your S? Yeah. And then I went down and I got up before the count of 10, referee dust your gloves off and the kid swarmed at me again and hit me with a bunch more punches and I covered up and the referee stopped the fight. So that was a TKO, which is a tactical knockout. But I had already known that I was kind of... I was already doing stand-up comedy at that time as well and I had known that I was half in half out. And then I had to give... So wait, when is this? 1989. So this is even before... This is before News Radio. Oh yeah, way before. Yeah, this was... So it wasn't for you you were either going to fight or be funny? No, well, I knew... I knew somewhere around the time I was 19 that this was not... There was no future in this. And I was trying to make the Olympic team, which was the Nationals were in Miami in 1988. And... Wait, where are you from? Boston. That's where I was at. So I was a Massachusetts state champion and then I would go to these national tournaments and compete against the Illinois champion or the New Hampshire champion.