When he was young, Joe Rogan wanted to be a martial artist. The comedian trained in karate and taekwondo from the young age of 14 to protect himself against bullies, and soon became smitten with martial arts, finding success in his early career by winning the US Open Championship, the Massachusetts full contact state championship, and the Boston Open.

However, with little opportunities in the field (the UFC did not exist yet) and afraid of the long-term damage he was taking, he retired from competition at 21. Joe Rogan revealed how his commitment to martial arts meant he did not have a normal childhood.

Joe Rogan tells Kid Rock he was “obsessed” with martial arts

Joe Rogan was joined by rock star Kid Rock on episode #2106 of the JRE podcast. During the course of their conversation, the two men got to talking about the politically incorrect games they used to play as children. The 56-year-old told the rockstar that he was not familiar with those games as he had a “f***ed up life”.

The Texas resident clarified that he had had a very unconventional childhood from the ages of fifteen to twenty-one as he was totally dedicated to kickboxing, which meant he had very different teenage years than other kids his age.

“I lived a f**ed up life. Not f**ed up, but just my high school years was all martial arts. It was all from the time I was 15 till I was 21. All I did is train and compete. Yeah, a lot of discipline and obsession. But it was very wide socially,” Rogan said.

However, all this changed drastically after he started doing stand-up comedy, and the discipline and clean lifestyle went out of the window. “So it went from that to being a stand-up comedian, which is like the complete opposite ends of the spectrum, hanging out with maniacs doing drugs and staying up all night,” Rogan added. However, there were very compelling reasons for the New Jersey native to pursue this alternate career path.

Rogan on why quit his martial arts career

Joe Rogan, in conversation with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, revealed why he decided to bid adieu to his martial arts career, despite showing a lot of promise and being obsessed with it. The UFC commentator said that he was primarily afraid of getting long-term brain damage, as he “knew quite a few people around me that from the time I was 16 till the time I was 21, I saw them deteriorate, like noticeably… And I knew that’s coming for me,” Rogan said.

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In addition, the podcast host claimed that he realized that he had started to get brain damage as a result of fighting competitively and sparring hard and thus decided to quit the sport. “I knew that was coming for me,” he added. The Italian-American went on to pursue a successful career in comedy, television, and podcasting. However, as Rogan has admitted, none of them compare to his role as UFC commentator, which he enjoys the most due to his love for martial arts, a career he once aspired to.

Also Read: ‘Dudes Were F***NG With Me’-Joe Rogan Opens Up on Getting Bullied Which Led Him to Pursue Martial Arts