Joe Rogan on Money in Fighting, Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcasts by night, all day. They get caught doing something. Yeah, I watched that, sorry for interrupting that, I watched that Hurt Business documentary on Netflix. I haven't seen that. Daniel Cormier, with his knee injury, and he's trying to get healthy again. Fuck, that documentary is intense. I haven't seen it, I should probably check it out. It's so incredible, like, the way, I mean, almost like the focus of it is, okay, we're gonna spotlight a number of these personalities from the UFC, and really show just how fucking tragic it is. They put so much into it, and then, you know, they have their careers for whatever it's worth, and then when it's all said and done, they just got nothing to fucking show for it, and it's just so fucking tragic. Well, you can't think that you're gonna have something to show for it, that's the thing. If you're lucky, and you become a Conor McGregor, who's like one in a million, or you become, you know, a George St. Pierre who retires as the champion, you're really, really unusual. But for everyone else, you have to do it because you love doing it. Of course. And if you do it because you love doing it, and that's what you want to do, then you should do it. And you will bank a lot of money if you're successful. But there's this thing that people have, where they see a guy like Floyd Mayweather, and they say, well, hey, boxers make millions of dollars. Look, Floyd Mayweather made hundreds of millions of dollars. No, no, no, no, no. Floyd Mayweather makes hundreds of millions of dollars, not boxers. Like, Gernady Golovkin, who's one of the best boxers in the world, he can't even sell 200,000 pay-per-views. Like, his last pay-per-view buy, I think, was like 150,000, which is insanely low, to the point where, like, it's very difficult for promoters to even get behind him unless he's fighting someone like Canelo Alvarez, which is his next fight. Well, he'll make some money in that fight. But guarantee you, he ain't making very good money, like with 150,000 pay-per-views. And he's a multiple-time world champion, and like a fantastic amateur fighter, one of the best in the world. It's about being a star, and a promoter is not responsible to give a fighter a bunch of money if they're not earning a bunch of money. It's a business, and the business is, people want to pay to see you. Why do they want to see you? Do they want to see you because you trash talk, or do they want to see you because you're Anderson Silva and you fight like you're in The Matrix, or do they want to see you because you're Ronda Rousey and you're the first-ever woman ass-kicker that we've ever seen like this? Well, whatever reason it is that they want to see you, that reason is why you can make a shit ton of money. It's not that you just deserve a shit ton of money because it's hard to do. Right, of course. But a lot of people get that wrong in their head. They get that wrong in their head. Well, it's show business, but it's also athletics. So it's a very bizarre combination of two worlds. Do you think that Conor McGregor is doing a disservice to himself by putting so much attention on, like just putting his whole UFC career on hold for this Mayweather thing? No, because ultimately he can only fight for so long and he stands to win like who knows how much money. I mean, he can make, it could be as much as $100 million for the fight. It's going to be insane. Asking a guy to pass up on the opportunity to make $100 million is kind of crazy. That said, he's fighting. You're saying it'd be wins? What if he wins? No, no, no, it doesn't matter. The way boxing works is you get a purse, you know? Like the way UFC works is different and often criticized, and I think rightly so, is that you have a win money and a show money. So say if you were going to fight Jamie and they set it up where you fight, you make $50,000 to show and then another $50,000 if you win. A lot of people have a real hard time with that, and I think they should because you're doing your best. You're giving your best performance regardless of whether or not you win. No one's going to fight harder, I don't think at least, to get that win bonus. These guys are trying to win, they're fucking gladiators. I mean, I think you should have a purse and that should be what you get paid, and you fight your best, and that's what you get paid. Like this idea that you're, that's double is going to, you know, you're going to come your way if you get the judges nod. Meanwhile, the judges get shit wrong all the time, and to have your future, like have $50,000 or $100,000, or who knows what the number is, on the line due to someone else's interpretation of it, or you can get injured and want up losing, or anything can happen. I think that's kind of fucked up. The thing about the Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather fight. If it's tennis, you get the money if you win. Yeah, but that's different. First of all, it's not a fight, okay, because like you play a tennis match every weekend. Try fighting every weekend. You'll be dead in a month, you know, like here it is. U.S. President, yeah, they agreed to sign a deal with Floyd Mayweather. That doesn't mean anything, because Floyd Mayweather hasn't agreed to it. The deal hasn't been negotiated. Conor has agreed. So that's what that means. But here's the deal. Let's be honest about this as much as possible. This is a boxing match between Conor McGregor, a guy who's never had a real professional boxing match, who was a really good amateur boxer in Ireland, who was a real multiple division world champion combat sports fighter. No doubt about that. But, and a striker, no doubt about that. But he's fighting one of the best boxers, if not the best boxer ever. Most likely, this is not going to work out well for him, if you had to guess. That's my honest take on it. The only way it could work out well is if Floyd takes him lightly, Conor clips him, Conor mugs him, Conor does some like old school Bernard Hopkins shit, like just ties him up, ruffs him up inside the clinch, hits him with some real hard shots, or does something fucked up to him. I mean, who knows? Headbots, I mean, that's what Victor Ortiz tried to do to him. I guess you can also say that he doesn't really stand there. It's win-win for Conor, because if he loses, of course he was going to lose. Yeah, and also, Floyd is not a vicious puncher. Floyd's not Canelo. He used to be. No, he never was. You don't think? No, no, he never was. He is an amazing boxer, but he has very brittle hands. He breaks his hands a lot. And he can knock you out, like he knocked out Victor Ortiz, but he knocked out Victor Ortiz because he's just standing in front of him. He knocked out Ricky Hatton, who was a smaller fighter, but he doesn't knock out most guys. He stuns them. He sticks him with some hard shots, but Conor's got a really good chin, and he's a much bigger guy. So the odds are, even if Conor gets worked, he's just going to get out boxed for 12 rounds and get embarrassed and just whiff at a bunch of punches, and Floyd's not going to be anywhere near him. Or he can catch him. I mean, it is possible that he can catch him, but it's not likely. Like, the odds are going to be huge in Floyd Mayweather's favor. If I had a guess, it's going to be like 20 to 1 or something crazy like that. I'm not an odds maker. But I do know movement, and I know boxing, and there's just a big difference between what a guy like Floyd Mayweather can do and a guy like Conor can do when it comes to the actual boxing skills. But there's also another factor, too, that Conor has been fighting with small gloves, and he's going to be fighting with larger gloves, what size gloves they agree on for the fight. If Floyd's smart, he's going to make him fight with 10-ounce gloves, because probably Conor will want to wear eight. I don't know what weight class they have the cutoff in. Like, lighter weight classes, they use 8-ounce gloves, and heavier they use 10-ounce gloves. That was a stipulation in the Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard fight. Sugar Ray Leonard wanted the bigger gloves, wanted heavier gloves because he was fighting a big, heavy puncher like Hagler. So they might make some sort of a decision to go with larger gloves. But Floyd's a fucking 49-0, multiple-division world boxing champion, and Conor has never had a professional boxing fight. That's really what it is. It's interesting. I mean, I want to see it. Don't make me no mistake about it. When the fucking first bell rings, I'll have my popcorn ready, bro. Well, you'll probably be right there, huh? I don't think so. No, I think I'll be home. Yeah, I think I'll be watching that from home. I think that's, whoever does commentary on that, it's going to be probably boxing people. It's like if you had Max Kellerman and Jim Lamply doing commentary on Floyd Mayweather fighting Conor McGregor in an MMA fight, I think that would be an embarrassment. That would be ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as it would be for me to do commentary on Conor fighting Floyd in a boxing match. Unless they wanted to have a combination of an MMA judge and a... That would be interesting to me. ...and a boxing commentator. Maybe, perhaps. I would do it with Max Kellerman. I'm a big fan of that guy. I like that guy a lot. I think that would be kind of interesting. But most likely, I'll be at home watching it. You know? I'd like to see it live, maybe. Maybe set ringside. Maybe kind of interesting to see that. It's going to be a crazy, interesting experience to see what Conor can do. I know he's been working almost exclusively on his boxing for months and months and months in preparation for this. Here's the thing. That motherfucker can put you into orbit with one punch. That's a fact. You know, like, if you look at this past weekend, it's a perfect example when I said about Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier having this crazy war. Conor murked both of those guys with one punch. With Eddie, he softened him up with a few punches before he murked him. But he had him on Queer Street with one punch. And he murked Dustin Poirier with one punch. I mean, he hits fucking hard. This is guy, Farasa Hobbie, he's a very famous MMA coach, and he said it best. He said, Conor has a touch of death. Like, he just blop! He just fucking blaps dudes and zaps them with ridiculous speed and accuracy. And when he does, you're Fuxville. The question is whether or not he's going to be able to do that to Floyd motherfucking Mayweather. And most likely, Floyd's going to be nowhere near him when those punches come flying. I mean, he's a wizard. You ever watch like Floyd made with a defensive highlight reel? Was it just him kind of running backwards? No, him just moving away from punches, bending at the hips. He's not a runner. See, people think that Floyd's a runner. Floyd doesn't run. He's not like running away from guys. He stands right in front of dudes. He stands right in front of dudes and maybe backs up slightly or moves to the side. But he's just so knowledgeable when it comes to boxing. He has such a deep understanding of where to be at the right time and where the punches can come from. The left comes from here. That means the right's coming this way and he's nowhere near that. He's over here and that means after the right. Look, what can you stand in front of him? When you watch him, the way he's able to like slide out of the way of shit, I mean, dudes just don't fucking hit him very often. He's been hit least or less than any world champion that's had 49 fights. I would say that he probably has the most successful defensive career in the history of boxing. He's, I mean, he's literally been tagged hard maybe five, six times in his entire career. And he stands in front of some of the best fighters in the world like Canelo Alvarez. I mean, Canelo was younger than it was a few years ago and Canelo wasn't as good as he is now. But he just stands right in front of guys and pops him in the face and just understands how to move. Like that kind of shit. Like when you're watching this highlight reel, you're watching a master. Like young fighters, they should watch his defensive movements and abilities, I think almost above all others. Except now this new guy, Vasily Lomachenko, who I think is rivals anybody that's ever lived in terms of his movement, his ability to move and his positioning and footwork. I think he's as good as it's ever been. But, you know, he has only got like nine professional fights or something like that. He just hasn't really... Look at this. Oscar De La Hoya is standing right in front of him and he can't fucking hit him. He's throwing all these punches. Look at that. Mom Juan Manuel Marquez, he pops them and just slides right out of the way. Sorry, not here. And unbelievable work ethic. Like Floyd Mayweather will go to a club, go to a nightclub in Vegas, hang out, drink water, hang out with everybody, get all the accolades. Ladies and gentlemen, Floyd Muddy Mayweather's in the house. Everybody goes crazy, lights $100 bills. Then you know what he does? People will drive his Rolls Royce and he'll run. He'll run the Vegas Strip, run miles, and then go to the gym three o'clock in the morning and do fucking 15 rounds in the heavy bag. He's an animal. I mean, his work ethic and his mind and his determination and focus. And I guarantee you, man, if he's getting ready for Floyd Mayweather, if he's getting ready for Conor McGregor, he's going to be in tip-top shape again, man. He's never going to come in slipping. It's going to be fun. But why has he got to be so... Such a dick? Because that's how he made all that money. The show business. The show business aspect of it is having people... He used to be pretty boy Floyd Mayweather. That's what they used to call him. But it wasn't really making any money. He became rich when he became Floyd Money Mayweather. When he started talking all this shit and people wanted him to get his ass kicked. And he wasn't getting his ass kicked. They're paying to see him, not necessarily because they like him. They're paying to see him because they want to see him get fucked up because he's a huge star. And it became a huge star by fucking with people. Talking a lot of shit. Talking about how great he is. Showing all of his watches and all of his jewelry. He's got this crazy house in Vegas. It's really the controversy. Domestic violence. The dude went to jail for beating up girls. There's a lot of controversy involved in him. And that's one of the reasons why people wanted to see him fight. They wanted to see him lose. And he didn't lose. He went all the way to the bank. I mean he tied Rocky Marciano's record for having the most successful fights ever. 49 and 0. As a champion. That's unheard of. And Rocky Marciano's record is a little bullshit. Because Rocky Marciano, Italians right now are going crazy. What the fuck are you saying? Rocky's the best. I pretty much agree that Rocky Marciano fought his brother in at least one fight early in his career. So it was like a fake fight. Pull that up. See if that's been validated. I'm pretty sure I've read that. That Rocky Marciano had like a fixed fight with his brother. Back in the day, you know. Like a guy like Rocky Marciano was a murderous puncher. It was probably like he would show up for a fight and people didn't want to fight him. And like the people paid to see him. Like what are we going to do? Like yeah my brother will get in there. So his brother gets in there and goes down to a body shot or something. I don't know. I don't know how it played out but...