Before Joe Rogan began his career as the UFC color commentator, he had a promising career as a martial artist himself.
Despite his promising career as a Taekwondo competitor, Rogan quit the sport after scoring a terrifying KO during a National Championship match in which he thought he’d killed his opponent.
Although he stopped competing in martial arts, Joe Rogan continued to train throughout his career and has also trained with several UFC stars since becoming the UFC commentator.
One of which was Georges St-Pierre, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, still holding the record for the most title defenses in the welterweight division.
Joe Rogan recalls teaching Georges St-Pierre his signature move
One of the reasons why ‘Rush’ St-Pierre is considered to be one of the greatest ever is because he had a fight IQ like no other, training at Tristar gym with MMA mastermind, Firas Zahabi.
However, even St-Pierre turned to Rogan for training advice as the UFC commentator had one of the most terrifying spinning back-kicks of anyone, and St-Pierre wanted to learn exactly how to do it.
The former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion is one of only a few examples of a fighter who retired whilst still at the top of his game, instead of tarnishing his legacy by sticking around for too long.
Despite being in retirement and having turned down huge $7m offers to return to MMA, St-Pierre has recently been training with the consensus greatest grappler of all time, Gordon Ryan.
“(Georges St-Pierre) is like the best example of a guy who retired with millions in the bank and is living his best life, he’s a real martial artist, he just wants to learn and grow,” Rogan said on a recent episode of his Podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
“Why would he come here and train with Gordon Ryan, why train with that f—— animal if you’re not actually thinking about competing? But for him, it’s just about learning and growing.
“He’s really a martial artist, he comes to Austin all the time to train with John Danaher and Gordon Ryan, all the time… I see him every couple of months.
“He came down to learn a turning side kick from me, he just wants to learn from everybody, he wants to learn everything,” Rogan continued.
Georges St-Pierre could make a comeback to martial arts
Although it is highly unlikely that ‘Rush’ will make his comeback to the UFC and MMA after turning down huge offers, there is potential that he will come back to compete in grappling.
In 2023, St-Pierre was scheduled to compete in a grappling match that was being set up by the UFC. He later revealed that his opponent was set to be Nick Diaz, however, the fight was subsequently canceled.
However, with the 43-year-old spending a lot of time under the watchful eye of Ryan, an appearance on the mats could be close around the corner.