UFC commentator Joe Rogan is a household name in the MMA community. However, fans, especially new ones, are often surprised to learn that the former Fear Factor host never competed in MMA. Nonetheless, the host of the Joe Rogan Experience is quite well-versed in a myriad of martial arts.
Rogan, despite his lack of a professional MMA career, did compete in state Taekwondo tournaments. And his taekwondo career is the most impressive, as a black belt in the sport with multiple championship wins. There is also a video of a 19-year-old Joe Rogan viciously knocking out his opponent during a Taekwondo tournament.
Rogan won four full-contact Taekwondo state championships in his teens. However, he eventually became disenchanted with the combat sport that he had practiced for years. This led Rogan to decide that he needed to polish his boxing skills, and that was when he started training in kickboxing. Joe even once discussed this on his podcast.
Rogan now is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The podcast host currently trains in no-gi as well as gi BJJ under the tutelage of Eddie Bravo and Jean-Jacques Machado respectively. Rogan also often discusses the benefits of practicing BJJ on his podcast. He even had BJJ legend Gordon Ryan on the JRE as a guest once.
Joe Rogan and his kickboxing record
Joe Rogan, as mentioned prior, is extremely proficient in Taekwondo. In fact, many UFC fighters often seek out tips from him owing to his expertise, most famously, Georges St-Pierre. But he eventually became jaded with the martial art, realizing how little he knew about combat sports.
This drove him to train in kickboxing in order to work on his boxing skills, he chose Muay Thai specifically. And he quickly got to the level where he was able to compete on the amateur. However, after just 3 kickboxing fights, Rogan retired from the sport at only 21 years of age.
Rogan started to suffer frequent headaches from practicing kickboxing. That, coupled with the multitude of injuries kickboxers regularly suffer, spurred this decision. When he retired, Joe Rogan had 2 wins and one loss to his name. Although it is unclear exactly how his wins and losses transpired.
Being retired from kickboxing doesn’t mean Rogan doesn’t still appreciate the sport. He frequently brings up Glory Kickboxing on his podcast, the promotion which Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya came from. He once even lamented the fact that kickboxing isn’t a big sport in the US. It seems Rogan’s love for the sport is yet to dwindle.
