Joe's Recap of the UFC White House Event

0:00 The Joe Rogan experience.

0:02 It didn't exist.

0:03 Right.

0:03 Distance isn't real.

0:06 Right.

0:07 So, I think that's I want to know about the UFC fight at the White House.

0:11 [laughter]

0:11 To get away from super woo-woo for a second.

0:13 It was insane.

0:14 Was the temperature make make everything different?

0:17 perfect.

0:18 No, the temperature was perfect.

0:19 I was very concerned about that.

0:21 I was really concerned these guys are going to have to fight in the heat,

0:23 but that was not an issue at all.

0:24 It seemed like it was in the 70s.

0:26 And it was the storm like miraculously just passed us.

0:33 Like there was all these weather warnings.

0:35 At one point in time, the fight was supposed to start at 8:00 p.m.

0:39 And at one point in time,

0:42 one of the weather experts wanted us to start at 10:30.

0:46 Yeah, cuz there

0:48 10:30 at night, which would have been a disaster.

0:49 10:30 at night would have been a disaster cuz it's a 6-hour show.

0:54 Yeah.

0:54 You know, or close to it, whatever it is.

0:56 Um 6 8 9 10 11 12 1 I guess it was 5 hours.

1:02 But somehow or another the storm just

1:03 like almost like went around the White House.

1:07 I mean, I don't know Mysteriously.

1:10 know what that is.

1:11 I don't know if that's science or if that's consciousness.

1:14 I don't know what steered the storm or if it's just random luck.

1:17 It could have been all of the above.

1:19 But um all my fears of the weather getting

1:23 in the way of the fights were they were null.

1:26 They would they didn't mean anything.

1:28 And then there was this long sort of ceremonial

1:32 thing where they had jets fly over and you know,

1:35 they played music and all this different stuff.

1:37 So, by the time we got to the actual fights, dark out, perfect.

1:42 The weather was perfect.

1:43 So, that that wasn't an issue at all.

1:45 And it was just the magnitude of the event.

1:49 I know people saw it on television and looked insane,

1:52 yeah, but the magnitude of the event being there live.

1:56 So, there's the event that's taking place on the lawn of the White House,

2:00 and that has 4,000 plus people.

2:03 The main event.

2:04 Yes.

2:05 The So, the the the actual UFC.

2:07 So, there's there's a bunch of military guys.

2:10 They're standing up in the back.

2:12 There's like a thousand of those, and there's 3,000 plus that are seated.

2:16 All these people are seated.

2:17 But then, behind that, not that far,

2:21 like a hundred yards, two hundred yards, whatever it is.

2:24 I guess it's more than that.

2:25 Maybe 300 yards.

2:26 There's the ellipse.

2:28 The ellipse has 85,000 people who got in for free.

2:35 Yeah, it's it's like in the whole White House ecosphere, whatever it is.

2:40 Wow.

2:39 Yeah, so this area, they have giant screens set up,

2:43 and they have, you know, huge speakers and sound.

2:47 And so, 85,000 fans are watching the fights live on the screens,

2:53 and they can see the lights of the this claw dome in the distance,

2:58 and they can see the White House

2:59 in the distance where the fights are taking place,

3:01 but they're watching it on massive screens with commentary.

3:05 And it was insane, and you could hear them roar.

3:09 So, you hear the crowd from here, and then you hear 85,000 people just ROAR.

3:15 YOU can hear it in the distance.

3:17 It was insane.

3:20 It was insane.

3:21 Just the magnitude of it was insane.

3:23 Unlike anything else you've ever seen.

3:25 Beyond.

3:26 I I mean, I'm a hyperbolic individual,

3:29 and I'm always like, this is the greatest, this is awesome,

3:31 but that was the wildest experience that I've ever

3:36 had in my 20 whatever years of calling combat sports.

3:41 There's nothing even close.

3:43 Nothing even close.

3:44 It was the greatest night of fights of all time.

3:47 And it was the only night in the history

3:48 of the sport where every single fight ended by knockout.

3:52 Did they all?

3:53 Every single one.

3:54 Seven fights.

3:56 Seven fights.

3:57 Every one of them ended by knockout.

4:01 Wow.

4:01 Which never happened.

4:02 Which was unprecedented.

4:03 Unprecedented.

4:04 Wow.

4:04 It was like the perfect experience for anybody that had never watched

4:08 the UFC before to see it that way at the White House like that.

4:12 I mean, it was it was nuts.

4:15 A huge experience for the fans that got to be there in the ellipse

4:18 and it mean the I saw videos these guys they were having so much fun.

4:23 And it's like everyone's in there for free.

4:25 You don't have to pay for the tickets.

4:26 There's 85,000 people out there.

4:28 They're all screaming and cheering and the drinks are flowing and it was wild.

4:32 I mean, just absolutely wild.

4:35 What a 250th?

4:38 Yeah.

4:38 Wow.

4:38 And and it's a sport that was like banned just what?

4:42 15, 20 years ago or something?

4:43 20 plus years ago.

4:44 So when the UFC So when I first started work up to the UFC was in 1997.

4:50 And back then you had to watch it on DirecTV.

4:53 I had DirecTV just because that was the only way to watch the UFC.

4:57 That's why I didn't have cable.

4:59 And then um Zuffa purchased it.

5:02 So the Fertitta brothers and Dana White they they started running it in 2001.

5:07 And that's when I came aboard again.

5:08 So I had quit in '98.

5:10 I worked from '97 to '98 and then I quit and then they brought me back in 2001.

5:16 And when that was going on, it was banned from cable.

5:20 And um they slowly started working it back.

5:23 They got it on Fox Sports Net,

5:25 which was the first time I ever commentated for the UFC.

5:28 That was UFC 37 and a half.

5:30 A very special show that they put on for Fox

5:32 Sports Net try to introduce people to the sport.

5:35 And so that was the first time it was on like cable again.

5:38 And then they started to getting pay-per-view

5:40 buys and it started growing and gathering steam.

5:43 But even back then like it was like you were doing porn or something

5:49 or snuff films or you you were

5:51 doing something that was damaging for your career.

5:54 You know, and people would like look at you like,

5:55 why you you're working for the cage fighting organization?

5:58 Why would you do that?

5:59 Cut to 25 years later, it's on the lawn of the White House and it is one

6:07 of the most watched sporting events in the history of the world.

6:10 Yeah.

6:11 I don't know what the total overall views are as of now,

6:15 but I know that it was like well over a I

6:18 think it was 150 million just by just by Monday.

6:24 Unbelievable.

6:24 Just by Monday.

6:24 So, that's like the night of and then people that watched the replay

6:28 that weren't there when the fight took place cuz they heard about it.

6:30 But now between now and between then and now, now we're dealing with Tuesday.

6:35 Like who it's probably another 50 or 60 million people have watched it.

6:39 And I'm not Paramount Plus just to just to watch it.

6:42 On YouTube.

6:43 I'm sure.

6:44 I don't know.

6:44 13 bucks or something and then it was.

6:47 But man, what a hell of an event.

6:50 Yeah, it was an amazing event.

6:52 I I wish I would have stayed up longer, but I watched the first few fights.

6:55 It was fantastic.

6:56 The main event was the greatest fight of all time.

6:58 It literally was the greatest fight of all time.

7:01 Cuz the guy that won it, Justin Gaethje,

7:03 was in many books a six to one favorite or six to one underdog rather.

7:09 Which is crazy odds for a guy that was a interim lightweight champion,

7:13 fought the best of the best, one of the best ever do it, BMF champion.

7:17 I mean, just super durable, real dangerous guy.

7:20 And that's how good Ilia Topuria is.

7:23 That's how good Ilia Topuria is.

7:24 Ilia Topuria in many people's eyes is the most skilled of the new

7:29 generation and the new generation is the most skilled of all time.

7:33 And Ilia was like the top of the mountain.

7:36 And most people thought that he was going to be too much and he was

7:40 too much for a while and he almost took Justin out in the second round.

7:44 And then Justin rallied and then Ilya it looked like he

7:48 got really damaged in either the first or the second round.

7:52 He was having real trouble seeing out of one of his eyes.

7:54 And then Justin started landing bombs in the third round.

7:56 Ilya had slowed down quite a bit.

7:58 It looked like he had really tried to finish Justin in the second.

8:03 And sometimes when you try to finish a guy,

8:04 you just hit the gas way too much and you can't recover in between rounds.

8:09 And Justin recovered and Justin started battering Ilya in the third and fourth

8:14 and by the end of the fourth round Ilya quit on his stool.

8:19 Yeah, he couldn't see out of either eye.

8:21 He he had got need into the body to the body real bad when he was on the ground.

8:25 Like you Justin like literally Justin had him down with his two hands

8:29 and just smashed a knee into his rib cage and you could see him go

8:33 like that and that was the end of the round and then he had

8:36 to retire on his stool and made like You think he broke a rib?

8:40 That probably could have happened but I

8:42 think maybe more significantly was the eye damage.

8:46 Both of his eyes were swollen shut.

8:48 His nose was up.

8:49 He had he taken so many punches to the face

8:52 and it looked like perhaps orbital damage like maybe

8:54 he had a fractured orbital cuz his his whole thing

8:57 had just swollen up on both sides and he's unrecognizable.

9:01 And you know, the guy hung in there as long as he could but when you can't see,

9:05 you can't see and when you're you're that battered,

9:08 sometimes it's smart to stop and he's a very smart guy

9:12 and I think he realized like there's I can't defend myself right now.

9:16 I can't see.

9:17 This guy's smashing me.

9:19 It's called a day.

9:20 It's This is what it is.

9:20 Let's preserve my body and my brain and rebuild and come back another day.

9:25 But for Justin, it was like one of the most

9:27 epic things I've ever seen in my life.

9:29 For him to to win like that when everybody had counted him out.

9:32 He was saying it was going to be his last fight.

9:33 It was like a retirement fight.

9:35 37 years old, been in the forever.

9:38 You know, fought who's a who's who of all-time greats in the sport,

9:42 and this is going to be his last fight.

9:44 And he's like, "What if I can win the title at the White House?

9:48 What an ending to a career." And that's what everybody was saying, like, "Yeah,

9:50 but you're not going to because you're fighting Ilia Topuria." He was like,

9:55 "All right, we'll see." Wow.

9:57 And he pulled it off.

9:59 He pulled it It was It was insane.

10:00 It was epic.

10:01 Absolutely epic.

10:04 What do you think that What do you

10:05 think the mindset is between somebody who you know,

10:09 you walk in as an underdog and wind up winning,

10:11 even though your skills may not be more proficient than the other guy.

10:14 What do you think the mental difference is between them?

10:16 Like somebody who loses or wins.

10:18 Well, there's a lot of factors.

10:19 One of the factors is that Justin has always been incredibly durable.

10:23 I mean, it might just be a genetic thing.

10:25 He even joked around about it, like,

10:26 "Science needs to take a look at this hard-ass skin

10:28 I have." Because he very rarely gets cut at all.

10:32 And his He's like, "I got these hard-ass

10:34 bones and hard-ass skin." He He was joking around,

10:36 like, "Science needs to study this." Um and it's true though.

10:40 I mean, he really is insanely durable.

10:42 He's been rocked and hurt before, and he's been stopped in fights before.

10:45 He was knocked out in the last second of the last round by Mac Excuse me,

10:50 Max Holloway in the BMF title, which was an insane fight.

10:54 But the guy is just He has zero quit in him.

10:58 It doesn't exist.

10:59 Like, if you're looking for quit, you go into a room, it's empty.

11:02 The quit room has no one in it.

11:03 There's nothing in there.

11:04 He's not going to quit.

11:05 He can lose cuz he's a human, but he's not going to quit.

11:08 And he's also been into the deep trenches before.

11:12 The deep trenches of these five-round chaotic insane battles.

11:18 And oddly, he thrives in those kind of battles.

11:21 He's a guy He's described as the most violent man in the most violent sport.

11:28 That's We've all talked about him like that for years.

11:31 Since the moment he burst onto the scene when

11:33 he fought Michael Johnson in the UFC at least.

11:36 He just He's an extraordinary dude.

11:38 Just a very extraordinary dude.

11:39 And not the most technically skilled.

11:42 Like Ilia looked technically better than him.

11:46 But it didn't matter.

11:47 Justin found a way to land shots, found a way to like persevere from the early

11:52 early rounds where he was in real trouble.

11:54 And just shocked the world.

11:57 It was amazing.

11:58 One of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.

12:00 That's cool.

12:00 It was amazing.

12:01 I was there.

12:02 Oh my god.

12:03 I I talked a bunch of people into going.

12:05 They didn't want to like Shane Gillis was thinking about not going.

12:07 I'm like, "Bro, you got to go.

12:09 It's going to be epic.

12:09 It's going to be a once-ever thing.

12:11 Not a once-in-a-lifetime.

12:12 Once in anybody's lifetime." It's never happened before.

12:15 It's probably never going to happen again.

12:17 Probably not.

12:19 No.

12:20 Yeah.

12:19 That's something you have to see and experience.

12:22 Yeah.

12:22 And it's so many people are trying to make it

12:23 a partisan thing like they're mad at people for being there.

12:26 Like, "Oh, you support Trump." Like it's a It's a fight at the White House.

12:30 Doesn't mean you endorse foreign policy.

12:33 Like shut the up.

12:34 Just please.

12:36 Just please stop.

12:37 And again, it's this thing, the ego thing,

12:40 where people are just they just want so badly.

12:43 And on both sides, for sure.

12:45 You know, the right celebrates this as a win for masculinity,

12:49 patriotism, and all these different things.

12:50 Like, "Okay, settle down.

12:52 Everybody settle down.

12:53 We should all be together." And mean,

12:56 one of the things that I wanted to do when we went to the White

12:59 House try to push through psychedelics

13:02 for therapy for veterans and people you know,

13:06 first responders, people struggling with PTSD is I you need to take

13:12 these steps to give people a path to change their mind.

13:18 I think that's the title of Michael Pollan's book,

13:20 and it's a great way to describe it.

13:22 Change your mind.

13:24 Yeah.

13:23 Change your whole perspective.

13:26 And there's no better way to change your whole

13:28 perspective than a complete dissolving of your ego momentarily.

13:31 Just At least for a while, just lock it all away, push it out,

13:36 and then you get a chance to see what it actually is doing.