Joe Rogan’s role as the UFC’s long-time color commentator means that he has watched close friends suffer difficult losses.
The podcaster and stand-up comedian initially started working for the promotion because he was such a big fan of the sport.
Rogan has always advocated for ways to make the sport better, but this involvement goes further than his job role and passion as a spectator.
He has also developed close friendships and relationships with several athletes who step inside the Octagon while he’s sitting cage-side.
While Rogan has taken measures like not interviewing fighters after they get stopped by strikes, there’s no way for him to completely separate his emotional attachment to some of the athletes, which creates difficult moments.
Joe Rogan cries while reflecting on some of Daniel Cormier’s toughest losses in the UFC
On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience [#2383 with Ian Edwards], the UFC commentator got emotional when reflecting on old fights.
When speaking about how difficult it is for him to watch people that he has a personal relationship with compete and suffer defeats, he referenced one fighter in particular.
Rogan and Daniel Cormier may not be commentary partners but they developed a strong friendship while the UFC legend was still actively competing at the highest level.
As he reflected on some of these moments, Rogan started to cry because of the huge emotional impact that it has just watching his friends go through incredibly tough moments that are going to hurt in more ways than one.
“It’s real hard when you watch your friends get beat up,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Real hard. It was real hard watching Cormier when [Jon] Jones beat him up. That was hard. The Stipe [Miocic] one was hard, especially the one where Stipe KO’d him against the cage. It’s just hard.
“Because you know them. You know them as human beings. You know what that’s going to do to them. It’s f—— devastating. It’s like a loss. It’s like you lost a family member or you lost a dog. It’s hard. I start crying.”
Joe Rogan also referenced the most famous example of him reacting to a friend’s UFC loss
Joe Rogan famously had to address his friend suffering a major UFC loss when he sat down with Brendan Schaub.
“For me the hardest one was [Brendan] Schaub,” Rogan said on the recent podcast episode. “Schaub didn’t want to quit and I was like, dude.
In 2014, Rogan tried to convince Schaub to rethink his career in MMA during a podcast episode following a loss several days prior.
“I was seeing the effects and I was like you’ve got to get out now!” Rogan said about Schaub. “If you don’t get out now, there’s no happy ending. There’s no happy ending to the guy that gets knocked out a lot. It’s terrible.”
Schaub would officially announced his retirement the following year after taking his friend’s comments on board.