Joe Rogan has paid a touching tribute to one of the founders of the UFC, who is often forgotten about while telling the sport’s story.
In the history of MMA, there is a lot of credence given to the likes of Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta, particularly when it comes to the modern iteration of the UFC. But years before White, Fertitta or even Rogan himself was involved in the sport, there were a number of key figures.
One man who was a co-founder of the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship was Rorion Gracie. After years of exhibitions called the “Gracie Challenge”, the Brazilian teamed with promoter Art Davie to launch the first ever UFC, and the rest is history…
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Joe Rogan heaps praise on Rorion Gracie
In a recent episode of his podcast, Joe Rogan was speaking about the advances in martial arts with comedian Jimmy Carr. The British funnyman noted that Roger Gracie, nephew to UFC co-founder Rorion, is now living in the UK, leading to huge praise being placed on the legendary family by Rogan.
“They changed martial arts,” Rogan said of the family. “Martial arts has changed [so much] since the invention of the UFC, which was by Rorion Gracie.
“He invented the UFC and that was in 1993, since that time martial arts have evolved more in 30 years than they have in the past 30,000 years. That’s a fact.
“There’s like legendary instructors where you hear ‘oh a guy got a black belt from Rickson Gracie’ and you’re like ‘oh s— that’s a real black belt’. Or from Renzo Gracie it’s like ‘woah, that’s a legitimate black belt’.”
Joe Rogan snubs movie about the original UFC
Carr at one point suggested that Netflix or a similar company should create a feature film about the original founding of the UFC. However, Rogan didn’t like the idea, preferring to see a lengthy documentary series that could accurately tell the full story.
“They’ll f— it up,” Rogan argued. “It’s better to just have a documentary, you don’t want to have a movie and even a documentary, you’re going to want a Netflix series. Because it’s going to require so much information.”
Carr then joked that he could be cast in the film if he bulked up using Tom Hardy’s personal trainer.