Joe Rogan, who himself happens to be a trained fighter, is incredibly confident about his fighting skills. However, even his BJJ and Taekwondo knowledge was not enough for him to face Mike Tyson. During a 2019 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan sat down with former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and discussed combat. This was the same podcast in which Rogan also revealed that he was scared sitting so close to The Baddest Man on the Planet.

The two combat sports personalities discussed a range of topics. From the intricacies of striking to the philosophy of fighting, they discussed it all. But one interesting topic that came up was Rogan‘s own combat sports history.

How did Joe Rogan start fighting?

Tyson was the one who asked Rogan about the reason why he started training in combat fighting. Rogan revealed that he was “pretty good at Taekwondo.” He explained that he won a number of state championships and national tournaments. However, the main reason to turn to combat sports was that he was bullied as a child.

“I was bullied. I moved around a lot I was a little kid, I was never very big. It’s just always moving to new schools, always dealing with new kids. I wasn’t big, and I didn’t know how to fight. I got picked on and I didn’t like it, so I said I want to figure out how to fight.”

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A lot of fighters turn to MMA because of this reason. But what’s interesting about Rogan‘s story is the level of dedication he had to his training. He explains that he became obsessed with martial arts. He was training every day and teaching a Taekwondo course at Boston University when he was just 19 years old.

“I did it every day, I started teaching. I was teaching at Boston University, I was teaching the Taekwondo course when I was 19.”

Why did Rogan not pursue MMA professionally?

When you are as connected to combat sports as Rogan, you are almost destined to pursue it as a career. However, in his very initial days, Rogan decided to not continue professional fighting. The beginning of the end for Rogan’s professional fighting career was when he decided to switch to kickboxing.

According to him, he was getting “beat up” because he didn’t know how to use his hands properly. This realization led Rogan to shift his focus to other areas, like stand-up comedy and commentating.

“But there was no future in it. Then what happened was I went from Taekwondo to kickboxing. When I started kickboxing I started getting f*cked up. Dudes were beating the sh*t out of me. I realized I can’t keep people at the same distance anymore. I didn’t know how to use my hands properly.”

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Rogan still reflects back on the decision to quit professional fighting and feels happy about it. If Rogan would have not stopped fighting professionally, fans might have missed out on his memorable commentary and his incredible podcasts!