Joe Rogan chokes up explaining Brendan Schaub’s UFC struggles: “It was so hard”

UFC and Mixed Martial Arts is a regular topic of conversation on the Joe Rogan Podcast but when he got to talking about his pal Brendan Schaub struggling in the Octagon, Rogan was overcome with emotions. 

Since its inception back in 2009, the Joe Rogan Experience has become one of the biggest podcasts in the world as the UFC Commentator and his eclectic set of guests get into a wide range of topics.

Given his background and links to Mixed Martial Arts, it’s not uncommon to hear Rogan and one of his guests breaking down a recent fight or going over memories of how they first started watching the UFC.

That’s exactly what happened when Rogan’s pal Bert Kreischer joined him on episode #1712 but as they got onto talking about Joe having to be impartial, he was hit with a wave of emotion mentioning Brendan Schaub’s struggles in the Octagon.

Schaub, a former UFC Fighter with a 10-5 record, is no stranger to appearing on the JRE podcast and even announced his retirement on an episode in 2015.  That retirement came as he struggled in the UFC, losing his final two fights to Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne – with the latter being an uncomfortable TKO that Rogan commentated on.

• Read More: Jake Paul mocks Canelo as boxing star won’t rule out future fight

Bringing up his UFC career got the podcaster going. “Talking about the fights, I try to be as neutral as possible and that’s why it was insanely hard when Brendan Schaub was fighting,” Rogan said.

“Watching Schaub get beat up… it was so hard for me, it was so hard,” he added, getting a little choked up and needing a moment. “Because, I genuinely love that dude and I saw where this was going and I was like ‘s**t, you’ve got to get out now.’ There is a point of no return when a guy starts getting KO’d by giants.”

Topic starts at 1:27:30

Ultimately, Rogan was able to compose himself and continue talking about his pals transition from being a Knockout of the Night winner to a successful podcast host and comedian.

It’s the not first time he’s gotten choked up talking about a friend, and it probably won’t be the last either, but it’s a side of Rogan that rarely comes out.