Joe Rogan quit promising MMA career at 19 for harrowing reason
Joe Rogan has revealed that he turned his back on a potential career in MMA at the age of just 19 - for a harrowing reason.
Rogan has risen to fame over the years for his work as a commentator and interviewer in the UFC, as well as being a comedian and actor.
His podcast, 'The Joe Rogan Experience', has been running concurrently since 2009 and he recently signed a 10-year deal believed to be worth £250 million with Spotify.
Guests on his podcast include Donald Trump, Mike Tyson and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, showing how his profile his grown exponentially over the years.
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What some fans may not know, though, is that Rogan could have had the opportunity to become an MMA fighter back in the mid-1980s.
He began martial arts training at the age of 13 and karate a year later, explaining in 2022 that his motivation was largely down to a street fight that he was involved in that left him 'humiliated'.
Rogan also trained in wrestling and kickboxing, and was tipped to become a future professional MMA fighter.
But one incident at the age of 19 changed all that.
Speaking on his podcast in 2024, he explained: "It was a time I never recovered from.
"I fought in this tournament in Anaheim, California. It was the National [Championships. I was the Massachusetts state champion, and I fought this kid who I think was the Illinois state champion."
He continued: "I hit him in the head with a wheel-kick. What a wheel-kick is, is like your body spinning - so I'm standing with my left foot forward, and I'm spinning my right heel around in a circle. And it has insane power, I mean insane power.
"I caught this guy perfectly. He came at me with what's called a stepping roundhouse kick, so he had his front leg forward, and he stepped forward with his left leg as he was going to throw a kick, and I spun with my right leg at the same time.
"He went out. Face plant, snoring, never woke up. Never woke up.
"He was unconscious for half an hour. They put him on a stretcher, I was watching. He never got out of that stretcher. They took him to hospital.
"I have no idea what happened to him, and it freaked me out."
Rogan then revealed that a conversation with his trainer after returning to his home city of Boston ultimately led him to quitting the sport for good.
"My main instructor, he said to me, 'I heard you had a great knockout'. I said, 'Yeah, I thought he was dead. He never got up.'
"He goes, 'Sometimes they die'. I was 19, and fighting for zero money. Then I was thinking, 'I'm not immune to that. Someone could 100 per cent do that to me. We're whipping bones at each other'.
"It changed my feeling about it, I never had the same enthusiasm after that. That was the beginning of the end for me."
Ryan Smart