Joe Rogan believes he was denied his chance to fight a Hollywood actor because he would ‘kill him’.
The 57-year-old Rogan first joined the UFC back in 1997, when he worked as a backstage interviewer. He has been a colour commentator since 2002.
Rogan is also well known for his podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, which features lengthy interviews with celebrities on wide ranging subjects including comedy and sport. Past guests have included Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Mike Tyson.
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And Rogan revealed on his podcast that he had the chance to step into the UFC Octogon himself.
He explained he was approached to fight actor Wesley Snipes, and he trained for six months but the fight never happened.
Rogan is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, as well as having experience in kickboxing and taekwondo. And he believes that Snipes pulled out because he didn’t want to be on the receiving end.
Speaking on his podcast back in 2016, Rogan said: “I think because he knew I was going to kill him. I think in the beginning he thought that he would be able to stuff takedowns, and he would kick my ass. Then he found out, no, I’m a taekwondo champion, and I’m a kickboxer. I’m way better at standing up than I am on the ground.”
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Rogan explained that there were financial discussions, but he had agreed to Snipes’ demands and therefore he didn’t believe that was the reason why the fight did not happen.
“I don’t know what happened, but there was a bunch of different demands,” he continued. “At first, it was going to be 50/50 and then he wanted to be 60/40, and I’d agreed to everything. Finally, it was like, okay, give me just this amount of money and give him whatever else the f—k you want. I’m like, I’m going to f—king strangle that guy, let me get a hold of him. It never happened.”
UFC President Dana White has revealed that Rogan did his first few shows working for the promotion for free back in 1997.
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White added: “He gets paid now…
“But you wouldn’t tell the difference from when Rogan was doing it for free from when Rogan is being paid sh*tloads of money to do it.
“Because Rogan doesn’t do it for the money. Rogan does it because it’s his passion. That’s what he loves to do.”
Alex Chivers