Ever wanted to see Joe Rogan in a fight? Well, you’re in luck as some kind soul recently sent the UFC Color commentator a video of him fighting back in the day an 80’s Tae Kwon Do tournament.
It’s not just any fight though, it’s one in which Rogan KO’s his opponent with a perfectly placed spinning back kick to the mid-section two seconds into the bout before casually walking off like it was no big deal.
Here’s what Rogan had to say about the video in a post on the UG forum.
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That was from the US cup in Connecticut in 1987. I went on to lose a decision in the finals to the US champ in my weight class Kareem Jabbar. Fun times, but with no money in fighting and seeing people get injured like this it was one of my reasons to stop fighting when I was 21. I was 19 or 20 here in this video. That’s probably when I was at my best before I started being a bit apprehensive knowing the consequences of getting ko’ed like that or worse with a head shot. I saw quite a few dudes get head kicked and watched their heads bounce off basket ball court floors. The martial arts competition world back then was quite a different landscape.
The headgear you see my opponent wearing was becoming the standard, but there were still ones like the one I was wearing that was just a cushion to protect the back of your head from bouncing off the floor when you got knocked unconscious. It looks like I’ve got a giant bald spot in parts of the clip, but actually it’s a headgear that was like a bandana and covered the back of the head and the light was reflecting off it. It was a shiney foam thing made out of the same stuff they used to make those karate foot pads out of.
It helped a little, but you really didn’t want to get shut off with a kick and have your entire body weight drop down on your head with only that thing protecting you from the gymnasium hardwood floor. I saw it happen many times.
In the bay state games in 1986 we actually fought on a thin plastic tarp that was stretched out over a thawed out hockey rink. It was fucking nuts. Just hard concrete and people getting head kicked dropping back and seizuring. Luckily I got through it without ever getting KO’ed but it could have easily happened to me if anyone ever hit me as hard as I hit some people. Weird seeing that video. It was a real blast from the past. A guy named John D’Amario who was also a competitor from that time held onto this tape for years and just sent it to me yesterday. Even talking about it kinda seems like bullshit because it was so long ago it seems like it wasn’t even me. When I talk about my competition days it feels only partially real to me, so a video like this really helps bring back memories.”
Check it out below.
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