Long-time UFC color commentator Joe Rogan may be 49-years-old, but you’d never be able to tell judging by the way he still crushes the heavy bag in this new training video.
Rogan, who turns 50 in August, has been with the UFC since all the way back to UFC 12 in 1997 when he first began working for them as a post-fight and backstage interviewer.
Rogan landed the gig despite never having competed in mixed martial arts himself, with the stand-up comedian being best known for starring in the long-running sitcom ‘News Radio’ at the time, but he was a passionate and knowledgeable martial arts enthusiast.
In his teenage years Rogan had earned a black belt in Taekwondo and won several tournaments, including the US Open Championship at lightweight in addition to being the Massachusetts full-contact state champion for four years running.
Beyond that he also had a 2-1 amateur kickboxing record and had began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1994, eventually earning a black belt wearing the gi under Jean Jacques Machada, and then many years later a no-gi black-belt in Eddie Bravo’s 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu sytem.
In 2002, the UFC’s new president Dana White invited Rogan to become the promotion’s color-commentator and in the years since he made that role his own and became widely recognised as the best in the business.
Over the years many fans have speculated how Rogan would fare if he had fought in the Octagon, and even some fighters have vouched for his skills, including UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, who once claimed the commentator had, the best spinning back kick I’ve ever seen in my life.
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However, Rogan has made it clear over the years that he has no intention of ever fighting in the UFC, especially in the current age of strict USADA testing, with the marijuana-enthusiast once joking that, I would break that drug test like a hammer hitting a carnival bell in a bugs bunny cartoon.
So, fans are instead left watching undeniably impressive footage of Rogan training, like the latest one shown here, and wondering what might have been.
