Joe Rogan is the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He's been in the UFC for almost 20 years and is a legend in his own right. In this episode, Joe talks about his rise to the top of the sport, his early days in the organization, and what it's like to be a champion. He also talks about what it was like growing up in the early days of the organization and how he was able to get to where he is today. Joe also shares some of his favorite memories from his time in the sport and gives us some insight into his life growing up as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s. Joe is a great dude and I really enjoyed this episode and I hope you guys do too! UFC 246 is coming soon. Subscribe to our new podcast, The Fight Club, where we break down all things UFC and UFC related. Click here to get immediate access to all the latest UFC & UFC news and listen to everyONE else's fight reviews, interviews, and everything else going on in the world of UFC and MMA! We'll be posting them right here on the Fight Club Podcast! Subscribe, Subscribe, Share, and Tell a Friend about the UFC & MMA. We'll See You Soon! -The Fight Club. -Jon Soriano & Co. -The Ultimate Fighter Team - The Ultimate Crew - The Fighting Crew Podcast - The Best of The UFC & The UFC Podcasts - The MMA Report - The Guys Who Know It All - The UFC and The Best Podcasts From Around the World - The Fight Game - The Realest Podcasts from Around the UFC and Around the Country - The Most Amazing Places in the MMA and Around The World - And Much More! -The Best of the MMA Scene and Everything else That Means That's Gotta Have It? - Thank You For Listening To Hear This? Thanks for Listening to This?! - Thank You for Listens & Gotta Hear This & Leave Us Out There? -- The Best Of This & More! -- Thank You, Thank You & Keep Them Truly Truly, -- & , ~ Love Ya'll Will Hear This And More - Best Effort & Good Luck & Good Blessings, - Good Luck, Cheers, Love You'll Hear It Out Here Truly, Blessings From Me & Good Effin' Out, Best Effin
00:02:36.000Yeah, but you made it look like a freaking certain little walk in the park.
00:02:41.000I mean, I was like, damn, Joe's been doing this shit for a while.
00:02:45.000Well, it's an interesting thing to see, you know, to see it progress from 1997 to where it's at in 2019. The biggest difference is not just the amount of eyes that it gets and the amount of people that are paying attention to.
00:02:58.000The real difference is the level of athlete.
00:03:01.000It's a giant, giant leap, like in no other sport.
00:03:05.000I don't think there's another sport from 1993 to 2019 where the athletes are almost, it's almost unrecognizable how much better the fighters are.
00:04:57.000My first fight, first time I ever watched a UFC fight, I was visiting John Jones in college, freshman year.
00:05:06.000This was our freshman year, true freshman year.
00:05:08.000I was visiting him because I went to a small school, William Penn University, which was about two hours away from him.
00:05:15.000He was at Iowa Central in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
00:05:18.000So, I went to go spend my fall break a whole week with him, just hanging out, because we had met the previous year in high school, and just, you know, it's two brothers wrestling.
00:05:27.000It was like, hey, two brothers, what's up, man?
00:07:49.000I freaking let it go because I'm one of those guys I never really sit and stop and smell the roses and things like that.
00:07:56.000I always have a chip on my shoulder and I'll explain why that is but I always had this chip on my shoulder with everything that I do so I never really sit and celebrate and say oh yeah I accomplished this or I did that or did that but I'd known his mom.
00:08:12.000I've met her previously to the fights.
00:10:16.000The video is amazing because she's hugging you and she's telling you congratulations and she's telling you that they're going to be coming for you.
00:12:14.000Trash talk at the press conferences, and there was a lot of that going on, but that sells tickets, and it's good for everybody, and it's natural and normal, but after it was over, it was nothing but respect, and it's what a lot of people think is wrong about the trash talk of this era, because there's an era right now, right?
00:12:34.000We're in the trash talk era, and some people are really good at it, and some people are terrible at it, but it seems like everybody's trying.
00:12:41.000I mean, Masvidal, Recently, when he just beat Darren Till, it was very interesting because, you know, his take on it before the fight was, why trash talk?
00:14:18.000And you can't really argue with them because this promotion is giving you the opportunity to even really make money at all for the career path that you chose.
00:14:57.000People try to say you have to do that.
00:14:59.000But for me, what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to just sell my soul just to, oh yeah, I'm just trying to earn a couple bucks because I'm not going to do that.
00:22:27.000Chris Weidman throwing that wheel kick against Luke Rockhold.
00:22:30.000Yeah, and that's part of everything that's grouped in with Fight IQ. You have to be able to assess risk-reward and certain things like that.
00:23:45.000Like, he's not quite a 170. I mean, he could beat a lot of guys at 170, but it's almost like he should be like 160 or 165. But 155 is too hard of a cut for him these days.
00:25:30.000One thing that I don't understand is that I haven't done the research is what foods to eat before a certain practice at certain times to feel me the best, to help me feel the best.
00:25:42.000Because I'm getting older and things aren't the same the way they used to be.
00:26:48.000The funny thing is, and Ali makes fun of me about this, my manager, is...
00:26:53.000All fight week, if you saw me, you would think this guy was like a zombie.
00:26:58.000I limp around, I freaking light again patches on me, and I'm in a boot or sleeve, and all I do all day is I go do the media rounds or whatever I need to do, training, come back, and I'm just in my room, either game ready on me or something on me.
00:27:14.000But when I walk through that door to fight, the Nigeria nightmare wakes up.
00:27:19.000And a lot of people would, if they go back and look at videos, when I walk into the cage, I step right before the cage, I pray, say my prayer for protection.
00:27:28.000And when I walk in, I just freaking don't know if it's like I flip that switch.
00:27:32.000Do you have a prayer that you say every time?
00:29:24.000Well, you sound like you have the perfect attitude.
00:29:27.000Like the idea that you're making a prayer to just do your best and not be hurt and not have your opponent hurt and protect you and your opponent.
00:31:58.000And my coach at the time, Brendan Slay, was like, yeah, a lot of people put that pressure on me when I was competing, too, and said that, oh, you're too short.
00:33:33.000Were you getting frustrated that you weren't being considered amongst the top contenders when you were undefeated, you were dominating all these people, and you were seeing when Wonderboy got two shots, and then you saw the Damian Maia fight, and all these other fights.
00:34:08.000The thing is, what a lot of people don't understand is they think, oh man, it's that 15 minutes that you're out there or that 25 minutes you're out there training, fighting, and that's it.
00:34:17.000You know, you got paid 10 and 10. Bro, I just did a five-month training camp to where I had to eat right for five months.
00:35:07.000At first, I just figured, you know, it's like Muay Thai, you kick shins and elbows all the time, and you get the little fractures, but you work on it, and that's gone in a week.
00:37:29.000That is crazy because one of the most impressive things about the fight is you never let your foot off the gas.
00:37:33.000And in the fourth round, I think it was, when you had Tyron Hurt and you really started pouring it on, I was like, okay, he's trying to finish this fight.
00:37:41.000How much gas is he going to have left in the tank?
00:37:43.000Because you know that sometimes when someone tries to finish someone and they can't, they're done.
00:37:48.000You poured it on, you took a couple of deep breaths, then right back on him.
00:37:53.000I'm like, damn, that's some serious fucking cardio.
00:41:00.000You recovered very quick because it was one of those pivotal moments in a fight where I was like, man, if Tyron doesn't go out here, how much does he have left?
00:55:49.000Four servings of protein, four servings of carb, fats, and this and that, before your weightlifting session, before you're sparring, before this.
00:55:57.000You need this amount of sugar, and this amount of this, this amount of that.
00:56:01.000Man, it made a big difference, because I would...
00:59:52.000I mean, if he even, and that's what I say, if he touched anywhere near this circumference right here, you're going to wake up and ask what happened.
00:59:59.000Well, that's what Kane was saying, that he didn't remember what happened when Francis apparently grazed him with the first punch near the back of his head, and Kane doesn't remember shit after that, and then clipped him with that uppercut.
01:03:58.000I looked up to those guys, King Moe and DC. They were like, you know, the black dudes that you look up to because there weren't a lot of black wrestlers.
01:04:06.000So they was the dudes that we looked up to.
01:09:18.000Now, when we were talking about Cain Velasquez earlier, Cain has had a series of catastrophic injuries.
01:09:25.000Knee injuries, knee surgeries, shoulder surgeries, back surgery.
01:09:29.000When you think about your style, that's kind of similar to his in a lot of ways in that you rely on pressure, volume, mental toughness, and wrestling.
01:09:44.000You're constantly bombarding your opponent with technique and with pressure.
01:09:51.000When you see that you've gone through all these surgeries and you see what happens with a guy like Kane where his body just can't compete with his mental toughness anymore.
01:09:59.000It's almost like his mind is too strong for his body.
01:10:45.000To hopefully, I guess, just scar up, you know, generate a blood supply, scar up, so it creates a little cushion, but fuck it, it didn't work.
01:11:51.000But he said, I mean, Mel's gone down himself, and man, I would go down if I had anything really wrong with me, too.
01:11:57.000I mean, I've gotten a lot of stem cells done here in the States, but they can do some shit down there in Panama that they just cannot do here in terms of regulations and shit, and they're doing phenomenal work with regrowing cartilage and meniscus and all kinds of shit.
01:12:14.000Especially, like, right now, while you're in recovery phase anyway, you really should get in contact with them.
01:13:30.000You know, shoulders are always going to be banged up, you know, but...
01:13:33.000I haven't, I've been fortunate, no surgeries there yet, but yeah, knees, I've had surgeries, five, and then I tore this, my index finger, that tendon right there, I tore that my junior year in college.
01:16:01.000The problem is when people don't get high and then they get high in a pressure situation like this, you're just like, you go into that tunnel, you're like, yikes!
01:21:30.000So now Marty went from just now everyone on the team calling me Marty to where people know about the wrestling, around the wrestling circuit.
01:21:37.000In high school, they're calling me Marty.
01:22:08.000But because I made waves, like I was that Marty kid that wrestled at Nebraska that has beaten the shit out of everyone, Division 1, 2, 3, NAIA, JUCO, it doesn't matter.
01:25:32.000Because partially when I got into this and why I appreciate the platform that I have right now is the fact that you can affect so many people at such a rapid amount of time.
01:25:46.000Because there's been instances to where I don't know if you ever remember that movie, What Women Want?
01:26:22.000But initially he didn't really pay attention to it until later on he realized she was missing from the office and then he like ran to go find her and essentially saved her life.
01:26:32.000But my thing is, and that's a quote that I live by, with great power comes great responsibility.
01:26:37.000Like what if there's someone that's dealing with something at a certain time?
01:26:42.000And yes, I didn't ask to be put in that position.
01:26:47.000But they just decided, oh, I'm just going to reach out and send a message before I kill myself this day.
01:27:39.000So, you know, I can't read them all, but every now and again when I'm bored enough and I have time, like, I'll read some of it because sometimes it is good, good things, but, you know, that is very easy.
01:28:52.000I was thinking when it was over that Herb Dean made a mistake, but the more I watched it, the more I think he didn't.
01:28:58.000I think what happened was, I think Robbie went out, I think his arm dropped, and I think when Herb came over, this is what Ben says too, that he loosened up the choke a little bit.
01:29:09.000And Robbie came back to it, and Robbie probably doesn't even know.
01:29:12.000Because Robbie's such a fucking savage, he probably didn't even know he went out.
01:29:15.000Yeah, but, okay, you know, this is the argument.
01:29:18.000And this is why it has to be ran back.
01:29:20.000Yeah, it's a good argument to run it back.
01:29:21.000You know, this is the argument because...
01:29:24.000First of all, when Robbie ran that truck through Ben's face, he was out.
01:29:38.000The one thing about wrestlers at the elite level is you can be out of it, but your body will naturally go through certain motions, grab a leg, pull up, do that.
01:29:48.000Do you think he was out cold when Robbie was bombing on him?
01:29:50.000Robbie ran a Mack truck through his face.
01:30:53.000But the way he put his arm down, it looked like it was out.
01:30:57.000But then when Herb Dean came to check on him, While he was giving the thumbs up, Herb Dean didn't really give him a chance to put the thumbs up and stops the fight right then and there.
01:31:08.000But as far as, oh, I loosened the choke, that's why he came to me.
01:31:10.000No, you don't loosen the choke until the ref pulls you off of him or you pop his head off.
01:31:16.000He said he lightened up when Herb came over because he thought that Herb was going to stop the fight because he felt Robbie go limp.
01:31:21.000You don't lighten up because you think someone's going to stop the fight.
01:38:41.000You know, I mean, if we have to fight, we have to fight one day.
01:38:43.000But, you know, like we feel the same when it's like, if you're going to talk shit online, when I see you keep the same energy.
01:38:49.000Like when I saw Ben Askren backstage, the only thing that stopped me from pushing his head through that wall back there was the fact that I almost blacked out when I was walking towards him.
01:45:38.000I'm not saying it's the hardest life, but I've had a lot of things happen to me in life to where I'm at this point in life where, man, I... I don't want to deal with all the hate.
01:45:47.000I don't want to deal with all this other stuff.
01:45:49.000I understand it's going to come with the sport that we do, but man, I got bigger shit going on in my mind that I'm worried about rather than all that little things, man.
01:47:34.000Did you know English when you came here?
01:47:35.000Yeah, we spoke English, but it's Pigeon English.
01:47:38.000So we knew that, like, you know, we're colonized by the Europeans, so the English is, the root of the words, root words are from the Europeans.
01:47:45.000So we knew English, but it's just our take on it.
01:48:19.000You know, like, we speak it to each other.
01:48:21.000So going from that to, you know, being essentially raised and going through school and one thing that, man, I really haven't ever shared with anybody, you know, very, very few people know, is that my father has been incarcerated since 2009. And this is the first time really I've ever talked about it.
01:48:46.000My dad goes to a test to just the justice system here, man.
01:48:51.000It's so crooked and it's so backwards.
01:48:56.000There's so many things that we're thankful for living here in this country.
01:49:00.000That, you know, you can sleep at night in your house and not worry about somebody breaking and robbing you and killing you, you know, for the most part.
01:50:32.000So it was a transportation for emergency and non-emergency, you know.
01:50:36.000And one thing that he hired these, like the paramedics, the AMX, to run the company.
01:50:43.000Because these are people that know the business.
01:50:45.000So he had people that he acquired from a different company.
01:50:50.000But, you know, one thing that I will say is my dad's ignorance.
01:50:54.000Is he didn't really do his research well enough on the guys that he hired.
01:50:59.000So you hire certain guys and now these guys are running the business and these guys are like, yeah, we're going to help you grow this business.
01:51:56.000Like, 15 patients were investigating for these runs or whatever that would bill this billing on them.
01:52:02.000And so they put it all under investigation, and they're like, okay.
01:52:06.000After a while, they come back, and they say, all right, we'll give you your stuff back.
01:52:10.000Like, we didn't really see anything, but we'll give you your stuff back.
01:52:14.000After they shut it down for a little while.
01:52:17.000So damn, now I got to go back to business.
01:52:18.000So my dad's like, oh, fuck it, I'm getting out of business.
01:52:21.000They already killed my business for me.
01:52:23.000So now it became one of the biggest companies, but you shut down for so long, you've lost what you've worked for.
01:52:28.000So now he's getting rid of it, getting out of it.
01:52:31.000Then they come back later, a few years later, for the same thing that they've already said, you're good, here, have your stuff back.
01:52:37.000They come back and say, no, we're going to prosecute you for this.
01:52:41.000So now those guys, and I've seen it, this is obviously how the feds work.
01:52:46.000Now those guys that you caught the EMS and these guys that clearly did what was wrong, you gave them a deal and said, hey, we caught you guys.
01:52:54.000Because those guys started their own company doing the same shit.
01:53:08.000And I guess they offered my dad a deal, a plea deal, which his lawyer didn't really tell him about because he had a court-appointed lawyer.
01:53:15.000So he said, no, I didn't do shit wrong.
01:55:18.000And bro, my dad just got railroaded, man.
01:55:22.000And it was so heartbreaking to where you're telling a man that has raised his family, raised his kids to work hard, get to a place in life, and you're telling him that the only reason he's there is because he cheated.
01:55:35.000And it was just one of those things that added a chip on my shoulder.
01:55:40.000Man, there's been so many moments that put chips on my shoulder with everything.
01:55:45.000I've been through so much that I just internalize.
01:56:09.000They're like, oh, this, this, and that.
01:56:12.000They're saying a little over a million total, which is nowhere near that.
01:56:16.000You gave them 15 years when these hedge fund guys that you found guilty for manipulating these markets for billions, you give them six months house arrest?
01:58:49.000What about the freaking hard work that I did to get here?
01:58:52.000What about all the times that I sat in a freaking hotbox my bathroom upstairs with a trash bag on because I knew that I needed to get a pound off the next day in order to be able to wrestle at this JV tournament?
02:01:47.000They're helping this country get to its height.
02:01:50.000The fact that you could come here and have someone do your nails, someone clean your house, someone wash your car, someone do all this for you, is part of what makes America so great.
02:01:58.000One of the greatest nations in the world.
02:02:01.000And the fact that you want to build a wall.
02:02:51.000So when I get the chance to put my hands on that guy, let's just know it's the wrath of every immigrant that has stepped foot in this country that I'm going to put on him.
02:03:02.000You and your family are the ideal immigrants.
02:03:27.000It's like when our families decide and we get the opportunity to move to a better place, the thing is, the whole persona is, we're going to be able to sustain this forever.
02:03:37.000So my kids are not going to just play around in sports, because that's not guaranteed.
02:03:42.000What is guaranteed is the fact that you're going to go to school and you're going to become a doctor because you're going to get a job anywhere in the world that you want.
02:03:48.000That's why the majority of them are doctors.
02:06:54.000That's what I call humanity because as human beings, when we're growing, and you hear this all the time with parents, I want a better life for my kids.
02:07:06.000We want to present them with endless possibilities.
02:07:09.000But you can't forget the fact that the reason you're the champion or the upstanding person that you are today is because you went through these hard things.
02:07:41.000There's also that you could do other things.
02:07:44.000I think a guy like you could do anything.
02:07:46.000Once you've achieved what you've achieved in MMA and in wrestling, the kind of mindset that makes you push your body to the limit like that and allows you to get just your body into the kind of condition that made you fight five rounds like that against Tyron.
02:08:08.000And this is one thing that I always say is I'm thankful for every individual that I've crossed paths with.
02:08:13.000Because when I really look back on my life and I internalize a lot of things, I was a freaking pipsqueak in Nigeria carrying this hot plate on my head to go sell up and down the street.
02:08:32.000I never imagined that I would get to the point where I would run into all these different wrestling coaches that would pour knowledge into me.
02:08:40.000And this is a shout out to every coach.
02:08:43.000If you ever saw me, I was drilling a move and you came over and just corrected me.
02:08:50.000Even if it's just a moment, an inch in my life, all of that contributed to the person that I am today, to all those coaches, all those people, all my mentors that give me advice, each and every one, because I never knew that I would cross paths.
02:09:07.000First time I ever seen an MMA fight was John Jones.
02:09:09.000I won my belt on the same card as John Jones.
02:09:13.000When I went to visit Jon Jones, I stayed in the same room that Colby Covington stayed in the following year when he went to school with Jon Jones.
02:09:32.000Went to the University of Nebraska at Kearney, became a national champion, wrestled with Travelle Delognam, Joe and Jake Ellenberger, Jake Ellenberger in the UFC, Joe Ellenberger in the UFC. Look at the paths that I've crossed in this life.
02:09:47.000To get me to this point here, I'm extremely thankful, man.
02:09:51.000At the end of the day, there's nothing that I can do that I got to give it up.
02:10:01.000I didn't control this and say, you know what, when I'm 25 and when I'm this age, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that, do that, and it all come together like that.
02:11:51.000Or when I'm doing sets of stuff, reps, and the coach is like, all right, four sets of 10. I'm doing 10 when I get to like 10. I can do one more.
02:12:10.000To where I feel like all that has built me up to where my mind is today.
02:12:15.000Well, your mind is there, but do you have a concern, like what we were talking about before with Cain Velasquez, that your mind might be too strong for the tissue, too strong for the ligaments, too strong for the joints?
02:12:28.000I mean, this is what I worry about with a guy like you.
02:13:39.000The way I train is what's gotten me here.
02:13:41.000And the way Kane trained is what's gotten him there.
02:13:44.000Now it's the responsibility of not just Kane, but everybody else that's around him that he really confides in to let him know when it's too much and when it's not too much.
02:13:55.000With cane, there's so many issues now because the surgeries have been so extensive and back surgery and knee surgeries and reconstructions, not just meniscus like you, but the actual structure of the knee itself.
02:14:07.000One thing that I would always say is...
02:18:04.000And the fight before that, I just lost.
02:18:06.000This was right after I lost the second fight.
02:18:08.000Now I'm getting ready for the third fight.
02:18:10.000And there was this doctor's office that we'd go in and sleep in the hyperbaric chamber because we heard it was better for your body and stuff like that.
02:18:18.000So I'd be doing it here and there once a week.
02:18:20.000I'd go in and sleep in the plastic ones.
02:18:23.000They zip you up in there and it compresses up.
02:23:22.000And God forbid I freaking wake up or my mind starts wandering 20 minutes in that I'm just fucking halfway panic attack through the rest, but I'll get through it.
02:23:33.000Yeah, it's scary, but you know since that day And it was crazy.
02:23:42.000At that point, when we were pregnant with my daughter, I was just like, fuck, am I going to survive?
02:23:48.000I can't keep asking this grown man, Rashad, that works hard to support me.
02:24:18.000All the hard work, everything that I've been putting in, boom, starts paying off, paying off.
02:24:22.000Now I'm making 10 and 10. Okay, you feel like that's enough to be able to sustain me until I got to fight again, got to fight again, got to fight again.
02:24:30.000I get with, you know, amazing manager, Ali Abdulaziz, who freaking, you know, helped just transform the career, take it to the next level, you know, and get with him.
02:24:40.000And now things are going the way that I, you know, I've been wanting them to go.
02:24:46.000And it was just, it's just motivation to keep working, like, Every time I look at my daughter, how innocent she is, how sweet and wonderful she is.
02:28:30.000I always wanted that old belt, you know, but now it's like comparing it to, no, like this new belt's got all these colors and these country flags on it and the stones.
02:32:59.000I'm not in no way saying what they do is easy.
02:33:03.000Those actors, I know they work hard to be able to transform and make people feel a certain way and evoke certain emotions from different people with your characters.
02:35:13.000People just love to come up with some excuses for why they don't do as well as you or why...
02:35:18.000Oh, what I was going to bring up too is I saw you do, because when I started researching you and watching your stuff, I saw the podcast you did with freaking Jamie Foxx years ago or something like that.
02:38:21.000Well, I think one of the great things about someone who accomplishes something that's pretty spectacular is that you didn't just do that and win the world title, but you set a lot of people in motion.
02:38:35.000You know how many people watch that and must have been pumped up and excited about it and then started doing things?
02:38:41.000There's probably a lot of people that decided to start fighting because of what I mean.
02:38:44.000Millions of people watched that fight.
02:38:46.000So stop and think about how many different people must have been inspired by that.
02:38:50.000How many different people saw the highlights on Instagram and on Twitter and on YouTube and how many people got fired up because of that.
02:38:57.000And that's what I'm thankful for, Joe.
02:39:52.000Yeah, I might have not thought of an individual person, but someone, you know, I might have inspired someone to start fighting that come from where I come from or somewhere in China, Indonesia, anywhere in the world.
02:40:20.000And when you hear a story like yours...
02:40:23.000You know, a kid who immigrates to the United States at eight years old and goes through all the shit that you went through and becomes a world champion.
02:43:41.000No, when we were talking earlier about guys who like to trash talk and what trash talking is kind of doing for the sport, whether it's good or bad, some guys are really funny with it.
02:45:30.000Do you feel, though, that sometimes they show you that by favoring guys who do do that?
02:45:35.000Like when Colby got a shot at the interim title before you?
02:45:38.000Yeah, because this is the thing is when someone starts doing that and they're starting to trend a lot more, of course, the company gets behind them because the company is about money.
02:46:57.000If you can do what you want to do, and then at the end of the day, look in the mirror when everyone's gone, it's just you, you take a piss in the morning, and then you wake up looking at yourself in your mirror, and you're like, I'm alright.