Rogan, Smith on separating men from boys in fight commentary

Having done everything in MMA but ring card girl, the hardest is fight commentary. It’s hard to call the fast and furious action and harder still when there isn’t any. Joe Rogan and Jimmy Smith two G.O.A.T. candidates, and the discussed it during a recent JRE Fight Companion podcast.

The two most important things are: You’ve actually got to care, said Rogan, as transcribed by Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. This has got to be important to you. … You’ve got to care, and it has to mean something to you, and you have to know what the f*** you’re talking about. You have to have a deep knowledge of it. You have to really care, and then it should sort of work itself out.

Smith concurred but added that commentators have to carry a five or six-hour show through the lulls. MMA is built on moments that make you gasp, “HOLY F@$%ING $#!@” but that’s seconds out of many hours. So there’s lulls.

There are two things that separate the men from the boys, in commentary, and this is the honest truth to me, Smith said. I will text Rogan and Anik or something when there’s a lot of early knockouts and I’ll be like, ‘How’s it going?’ Because that’s when we have to fill all this time. What you don’t understand in TV is, they’ve booked a two-hour TV show or three-hour pay-per-view, and they’ve got to fill X amount of minutes, period. It doesn’t matter what happens.

They’ve got to use fights that have already happened, or it’s, ‘Jimmy, interview this fighter. We need five minutes right now.’ So that’s where the tap dance happens, when there’s a lot of early knockouts and you have to fill the time. That’s rough. The other thing is when you have a 25-minute snoozefest. Those two parts are really challenging. In terms of in commentary, those are two things that are really tough. The early knockouts and the boring fights.

And then there’s post-fight interviews when a fighter is screaming, happier than he’s ever been, and could be concussed as well.

My big fear is that I’m going to be interviewing a fighter after a fight, and then I can’t remember their name when I congratulate them, said Rogan. Before I go out there, I will write it. Like if it’s a dude I’ve never seen fight before, and I’m like, ‘Oh f***, who is this guy?’ I’ll write his name down, I’ll say it, I’ll repeat it, and I’ll read it back. You might see me walking to the cage, and I’ve got my earpiece in. I’m saying his name because I don’t want to f*** it up.

Rogan had one final bit of advice.

I tell people: You are not the show, he said. Your question should be just to lead them. I try to have as little personality as I can. I’m just trying to give you the platform. I’m just trying to give you a path to take give your answer. I want you to express what happened in your mind. Maybe there’s some adversity that you had to go through. I want to know how bad it was. But I don’t want to be there. I’m just the guy that has to say those words.

Rnd Smith will be making his UFC color commentator debut at UFC 221 on February 10, 2018 at Perth Arena in Perth, Australia. Rogan is no longer doing the international events.