“I Remember Being Stunned” – Joe Rogan Recalls How Muay Thai Changed the Growing MMA World in the 90s

Joe Rogan is also a seasoned comedian and one of the top podcasters in the country. His podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ may boast of having some of the most influential modern-day figures as guests; including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk. On a recent episode in the MMA special series of ‘JRE’, Rogan was joined by the noted former UFC Lightweight and the promotion’s second color commentator, Paul Felder.

The duo talked about a variety of issues, including Rogan‘s narration of how the popularization of Muay Thai caused major shifts in the MMA world.

Joe Rogan found Muay Thai eye-opening, whereas people around Felder called it dangerous

Rogan started off by describing his experiences from a time when “most people didn’t know what Muay Thai was about”. Moreover, he talked about how he was a huge fan of Rick Roufus and PKA, which initially made him witness Muay Thai. He also found it interesting and “started training with guys who were going to Thailand and fighting”.

The ‘JRE’ host then narrated that he knew some “dude” who “went over there for months and months at that time”. The 55-year-old further mentioned that the year he was talking about was probably “[19]88 or 89”.

Rogan said that he was curious about all the cuts that he spotted on the forehead of that “dude” when he returned from Thailand. This is how he discovered the power of elbow strikes.

Rogan continued, “it was very eye-opening. The elbows were very eye-opening. I hadn’t thought of it as an in-tight weapon to work alongside boxing and then the leg kicks”.

Continuing to talk about how amazed the UFC commentator was; he said, “I remember being stunned at how effective leg kicks are. It’s just so amazing.”

READ MORE – “They Would Start Their Own Schools”: Joe Rogan Recalls How UFC Exposed ‘Frauds’, Who ‘Literally Didn’t Know How to Fight’

Felder also agreed with Rogan on this, as he described his own experience. The former UFC Lightweight mentioned how he remembered “a couple of people when he was starting doing Taekwondo and Karate”, who were absolutely fascinated by Muay Thai.

He also mentioned that some people around him termed Muay Thai as “dangerous”.

Rogan and Felder were stunned by the kicking styles brought in by Muay Thai

Rogan also talked about the other attacking dimensions, which had opened up due to the popularization of Muay Thai. He stated, “Like that was the first time striking styles merged, where you saw above the waist kickboxing, which is what most of the people did in America and Muay Thai. Muay Thai was so much more effective. But, if you had those above-the-waist-styled kicks and…”

Watch this Story – Joe Rogan On Howard Stern And His Evolution Towards Being Woke

He further described his observations, stating, “No one knew what to do with front leg side kicks. I remember that when I was kickboxing, I was like no knew what to do with that,”

The ‘JRE host’ found it “weird” how nobody at that time had the proper answer to those front leg side kicks. He stated, “It was weird and if you stand sideways they don’t know how to handle that.”

Felder completed Rogan‘s sentence stating, “And you can kick the legs”. Rogan was in agreement with what Felder said.

A lot of MMA and combat sports fans will agree with Rogan in this regard. Muay Thai truly has been a pioneer in the development of MMA. Do you also agree with Rogan on this one?