Joe Rogan on Karate in MMA

I don't know if you knew, but I used to do tournament fighting. Karate style, right? Yeah. And the reason, what discouraged me or made me know that I didn't want to be a fighter is just what you described. The anxiety. Oh. Yeah. It was paralyzing. It was paralyzing. Yeah. I mean, I'd be frozen with, and it's so crazy. I mean, the last term was with Ed Parker's International Karate Championships in Long Beach, California. And I never had to fight until my feet were stuck. And I was a Taekwondo black belt. But my feet were frozen to the fucking mat. I couldn't lift them. My legs weighed 1,000 pounds each, man. I was so paralyzed because all these people, all these people were around. And I was so afraid that I was going to do something to embarrass myself. And I'm like, oh my god, everybody's looking. And there's a bunch of matches going on at the same time. But it felt like everybody was looking at me. And I'm like, man, they're going to watch me do something. My technique's going to be wrong. I'm just going to fuck up in front of the end of the fear was paralyzing. I'm like, you know, I can't fucking do this. I mean, I cut out to be a fighter, man. I just can't. The pressure just kicked my ass. It's a hard thing to overcome. Oh my god. It's hard to sort your way through it. And what's really hard for a lot of fighters is coming back from a loss. Oh, yeah. They get beat up and smashed. And then they have to come back and figure out a way through. You know, and especially a devastating loss. Of course you see it, but a devastating loss. Do you know who Raymond Daniels is? Of course, the GOAT. Did you see his fight this past weekend? Did you see that 720 degree punch? Go to Bellator to find that clip. Man, I left it up. We won't be able to show it, right? Yeah, I can show you guys. Yeah, just show us. So for folks who don't know, well, one of the reasons I brought up Raymond Daniels is Raymond Daniels. Oh, he's a Bellator kickboxing champion now. He lost in devastating fashion to Nikki Holtskin, who's another world champion, and also to Joseph Valtilini, who's another world champion. So when he was making the transition from karate champion to kickboxing champion, he had some stumbling. Yeah. Maybe it didn't go 100% smooth with that. But that guy's got an iron will. Man, stunt coordinators in movies. Here it is. Watch this. Look at Raymond Daniels. Why? That's fucking crazy. He went for a 360 roundhouse kick. Dude wasn't there. And then he continued to spin further. Yeah, boom. I mean, that is insane. That is such an insane land a punch at the end of that. I mean, that is so bananas. And he landed a spinning back kick to the body right before that, too. Yeah. I mean, he did a thing. Find the thing he did in glory. He did a jumping side kick spinning back kick combination where he touched him. He touched him with the front leg and then spun in the air and spinning back kick areas right here. Yeah. I mean, this is fucking crazy. Yeah. He. Oh, here. Watch. Watch how he does. Let this go. Here it goes. Watch. He touches up top. Pain. I mean, that is movie shit. And to do that to a world class kickbox. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I mean, the movie stunt coordinators are looking at his highlight to come up with fight scenes. These dude, he does stuff that they don't even do in the movies in a real fight. Yeah. Yeah. And like, man. He's hard to handle. I gave a pep talker speech sent to a group of fighters. He was in the group that came out. And I got a friend, got the meet. I'm like, man, I don't know. Oh, it's a fan boy big time. Oh, right in the dandles. He's a bad motherfucker. Oh, he's bad. I love watching those guys and like guys like Michael Vennon Page, who's another one who has those karate skills, but then they're learning all the skills of MMA. Yeah. And then you see like, man, if you don't know that karate style and he knows MMA, like you're kind of fucked because they do shit that's like outlandish.