How Joe Rogan Got Into the UFC

because if I was working for a more sensitive organization you know obviously it's a [ __ ] Cagefighting promotion it's like how sensitive can you get yeah but with some social issues you know this like if I was working for the NBA I've been fired a decade ago the MMA is definitely a or the UFC is definitely an animal in itself how did how did you get into that position did you know the Dana White and you started for you I always wanted to ask you this and at The Comedy Store how did you become kind of the voice of of the UFC well I started in 1997 I was the post-fight interviewer that was it was just a position that was available and the UFC was very small back then very few people knew what it was it was off a cable you couldn't get it on cable you could only get it on satellite and they needed someone to do post-fight interviews so you were in that world to begin one I was in the martial arts world you know I used to teach martial arts for a living before I became a comedian I used to fight fought a lot of Taekwondo tournaments and had some kick boxing fights and I'd always been a martial artist since I was a kid and so I just was interested in watching the UFC and then I started training in jiu-jitsu and when I was training in jiu-jitsu I was just a white belt I was just starting out that's when I got hired by the UFC to be a post-fight interviewer but I only did that for two years and then I quit it was just too much and it was actually like it was I was losing money I would make more money doing a weekend at a comedy club than I would doing it do in the UFC and it just got to a point was just it was too much of a pain in the ass and so I still remained a fan but I backed away and then the UFC was purchased by this company called Zuffa in 2001 and when that happened they started putting on shows in Vegas and I would go there with my friends they got me free tickets they reached out and they would try to get celebrities to go sit there so that it would unique they would because they were very small-time they were trying to hemorrhaging money they were trying to build it up and in talking to Dana White one day you know I was talking to him about fights going on in Japan I'm like have you ever seen Sato fight do you know what do you know Sakura do you know this guy no I was bringing all these names and he was like do you want to do commentary I'm like I don't want to do commentary man I'm here to get drunk and watch people kick the [ __ ] out of each other I'm not here to work and he talked me into it for one show UFC thirty seven and a half it was a show that was on one of those Fox Sports network's smaller networks and I think was the best damn sports show period was a part of it I did that and the rest is history well and then I did like twelve of them for free like the UFC didn't have any money they well they were hemorrhaging money and they had there were rich people that owned it but it was not a profitable venture yeah and I said look just get me there get me my friends tickets and I'll do it and so that's how I operated for like like over a year and then I just became the commentator it's just weird that's crazy it's just Dana White he's a crazy man and he's uh he's got a you know a weird way of looking at things that that's very effective and in in his crazy mind he's like let's take this guy's never even thought about being a commentator and make him our commentator I mean I didn't know what the [ __ ] I was doing I mean I really didn't I didn't have any training at all in sports commentary I just would see what was happening and start talking about it you know which is really like the wrong I was more even play-by-play and color it was like doing both of them at the same time was really weird and as far as you doing that do you get any notes from anybody going hey Joe try this try to add or you just develop that whole that voice all on your own 100% of my own so the only thing that I had was there's like Mark Telegraph a who's a good friend of mine he is he's a one of the top trainers in the world he's in the truck and I can communicate with him there's a button where I can communicate with him and we talk about stuff like I can say does he look like he's limping to you and he's like yeah there's something wrong with his leg I go to the left leg right he's like yeah yeah and then I'll start talking about it like I'll be able to bounce it back or sometimes I just it's obvious and I'll say it myself and I'll I'll ask him like am I wrong is he dropping his hand or is is this is it like is it nice it's a nice thing to have some things off it used to be Eddie Bravo Eddie Bravo used to do it as well where I would be able to talk to him about certain positions because he would be in the truck and I'd be able to ask him like his left legs in jeopardy right now right or he needs to step over with his right leg we'd be able to go over because like there's some aspects of martial arts that are extremely technical especially jujitsu when things go to the ground and you're trying to commentary do commentary and I have to decipher which is his left leg which is his right leg where is he tied up where is he tangled and I'm doing in real time while I'm trying to be entertaining and talking very complicated mm-hmm you know but nobody taught me how to do it but figured out how to do it and you're not looking at like a Jim Lampley or anybody in the broadcasting world when it comes to fights of or you this is something that you developed on your own like sometimes you look as a comedian you look at other comedians say the Friars or yeah Ireland's or whatnot do you didn't have kind of like a mentor no not necessarily because there wasn't one there wasn't a lot of guys that did it in in for martial arts commentary there was John Peretti who was excellent he was one of the very best who was actually the UFC matchmaker and a commentator when I first started he was very good there's a guy named Jeff Armstrong he was very good too he was there when I first started - he actually ran a promotion called hook and shoot he's excellent he really knows what he's doing and then there's a few other guys you know that also did it but there's like what I do as far as like stand doing commentary for MMA this might maybe 10 guys in the world that do it yeah you know that really do it on theirs on a high level maybe ten guys well I mean between one Fc between you know brave and then the UFC Bellator pfl there's maybe maybe ten guys on the planet that are doing it there's not a lot of people know and there's a lot in the UFC now where fighters are now transitioning to become commentators and oftentimes they're the best at it like Michael Bisping just did this past weekend he was the UFC middleweight champion and he's awesome at it already did one one show they know more obviously because they've been in there you know they have that added an element of actually having fought in the UFC which is gigantic yeah I could see anything Paulie Malignaggi yeah yeah yeah he seems to be very very fantastic he's very good he's very good very technical but also very aware and fighters can see things that maybe the average person can't see like they see when someone's slowing down they see when someone's laying back they see when someone got hurt to the body they see like little things that maybe a person who's never fought before it doesn't say

Channel: JRE Clips

Views: 1,036,261

Keywords: Joe Rogan, JRE, Joe Rogan Experience, JRE Clips, PowerfulJRE, Joe Rogan Fan Page, Joe Rogan Podcast, podcast, MMA, Joe Rogan MMA Show, UFC, comedy, comedian, stand up, funny, clip, favorite, best of

Id: 5HfywG4bGsI

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 04 2019