#1591 - Jordan Burroughs

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Really, really pleasure to meet you. I'm a big fan. I think what you're doing, first of all, I think it's amazing that no one's talked to you into doing MMA.

It's incredible.

Jordan Burroughs (0:23)

I've been close.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

How close?

Jordan Burroughs (0:25)

Mostly the lady outside, my wife Lauren.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Really?

Jordan Burroughs (0:28)

Is the one that's talked me out of it.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

Really?

Jordan Burroughs (0:30)

Yeah, bro. Like when I graduated from college in 2011, University of Nebraska, wrestling was still on the brink of, if it was in its infancy of marketing and branding and really making it a professional career. So MMA was the new kid on the block, and it was growing and expanding.

And we had a lot of our guys transitioning in, Henry Cejudo, Ben Askren, Daniel Cormier. And so I really thought about it. I was like, OK, I'm going to wrestle in the Olympics in London 2012, win the gold, and then I'm going to make the transition to MMA. I'll be 25 years old. I'll have plenty of time.

And then I met Lauren, and she's like, listen, you're doing well in the sport. Stay here. You're comfortable. It's just a different. It's a different sport. MMA in comparison to wrestling, but it's a good thing.

Joe Rogan (1:15)

It is a different sport, and it also has a lot more head trauma. And there's a lot of things to consider 100 percent.

Jordan Burroughs (1:21)

That's what I think about all the time.

Listen, I think about going to MMA until I see a guy like Platinum Mike Perry get his whole thing split, nose crooked. I'm like, eh, I'm good. Like in wrestling, you lose, you get taken down, pushed out, you get pinned.

In fighting, you lose, you get something broken, choked out, tapped. It's unconscious. It's a very, very different sport. Wrestling, you score as many points as possible doing the least damage as possible. In MMA, I feel like it's different.

Joe Rogan (1:55)

It's a shame that there's not more attention put on the professional...

At one point in time, professional wrestling was actual wrestling. It wasn't like WWE entertainment. It was professional wrestling, and it was done for...

Why can't they do that? I know they tried to do that a few years back. There was an organization, I think... Was it Kevin Jackson that was doing it? Yeah, he was doing something where he was doing a professional wrestling organization, but it just didn't catch on for some reason. But yet, golf is on TV.

Jordan Burroughs (2:29)

For sure.

Joe Rogan (2:29)

Baseball, and all these things that are...

Jordan Burroughs (2:31)

Bags, bro, cornhole. I was watching the Cornhole Championships on ESPN the other day. I'm like, bro, this is wild.

Cornhole is on ESPN more often than wrestling.

Joe Rogan (2:43)

But isn't that just now, because there's no crowds and COVID, and there's all the weirdness, and there's a lot of shit that's on... If you follow Sports Center on Instagram, half the shit they do is people in their backyard doing crazy dunks and stuff.

Jordan Burroughs (2:57)

I think the invention of the internet has definitely changed the game for our sport.

We are in an epic time where anyone can be famous. All you need is an iPhone, cell phone, period. If you can film footage and upload it, and it's funny, it's inventive, it's disruptive, you have an audience, and people are going to follow it. So people that are going viral now and becoming superstars aren't even the most particularly talented people in society. They just have a niche, and they know how to stay consistent with it.

Joe Rogan (3:28)

Well, sometimes it doesn't even make sense. Like, something just catches... Like, remember that dude that was on the skateboard doing Fleetwood Mac?

Just for whatever reason, everybody's like, that guy looks like he's having fun.

Jordan Burroughs (3:40)

Get this man a truck, get him more cranberry juice.

Joe Rogan (3:42)

And now he's on... I look at... he's always on podcasts, he's all over the place. He bought a house, he bought a car. I mean, it's really incredible.

Jordan Burroughs (3:49)

That's the beauty of it.

That's the beauty of it, is it gives people an opportunity. There it is right there. Yeah, so it was a professional wrestling league that they established. And, you know, when people reference what we do, I call it Olympic wrestling. Honestly, I don't even call it professional wrestling because that is kind of an ode to the WWE and old time WWF. So it's a unique thing that we had at this time. This is Tommy Rollins, Daniel Cormier, both extremely competitive, both great wrestlers, Oklahoma State, Ohio State. This probably was round 0-4, 0-5-ish.