Rogan felt like $#!^ after retirement talk, Schaub in tears

Earlier this week Joe Rogan interviewed UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub, in what may in time be seen as the most important story of the year. It concerned when it is time to retire, given the danger inherent in being punched in the head by the most dangerous men on Earth, wearing 4 oz gloves.

Rogan was loving, but not sweet.

“There’s s— that other people can do that you can’t do,” he said. “I just think there’s a bridge between you and the best guys in the world and I don’t know if you can cross that bridge.”

One a recent podcast of his own, Rogan reflected.

“I still feel like s—.” said Rogan as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting. I feel like s— today. I felt like s— while we were doing it.

“He wanted to talk about it on the air and I asked him if he was sure. He was like, ‘Yeah absolutely. I want to get it out there. I want to hear exactly what you really think.’ I’m sure what he thought I would think and what I did think was different. Then as we were talking I kind of realized, I feel like his perceptions of where he’s at and the dangers of what has happened to him and the reality of where he’s at and the dangers of what have happened to him were off.”

“I f—ing love that dude. He’s really honest. He’s really honest about everything except his fighting ability. I think his fighting ability, or his position, he’s got a slightly elevated sense. But that’s why he’s a bad motherf—er. You have to have this sense that’s almost distorted in order to be a fighter in the first place.”

“If you lose and you start looking at yourself in a delusional way it can hamper your ability to work on all those areas. Any time you have a delusional perspective, an introspective outlook that’s just not accurate, you’re not doing yourself a favor. You need someone else to give you advice. You’re not seeing things that you can correct. When you’re in that state as a martial artist it becomes very dangerous.”

On his own Fighter and the Kid podcast, Schaub explained how it felt to be on the receiving end of the tough love.

“We’re sitting down and, I mean, he literally just thrashes me to the fullest extent,” said Schaub. “You heard me going ‘huh, huh,’ because if I would have spoke you would have heard me crying. I was trying not to cry. My phone blew up. I had 40-45 text messages from friends, family. People going, ‘Walk out right now. Don’t take this right now.

“I don’t agree with Rogan. Some of his points I do agree with. There’s some stuff when you lay it out and look at numbers I can see why he thinks I should move on. The truth is I make about as much doing this show as I do in the UFC. That’s the truth, it’s about identical.”

“Do I think I can compete at a high level and still kind of do [the podcast]? 100%. 100%. I disagree with him there. It’s a fine line between hanging it up and moving on and continuing to fight. Have I had concussions? 100 percent. It’s documented. You’ve seen me in the UFC. I played football for 20 years. I’d rather live my life for 50 years being a warrior than live to 100 being a freaking gazelle. Being a peasant. 100 years as a peasant? Nah, I’ll take the 50 glories.”

Schaub said afterwards he went home and cried.

The subject of brain trauma in combat sports is a deadly serious one, and the only crying shame is not discussing it honestly.