#900 - Joseph Valtellini

Joe Rogan (0:04)

And we're live, what's up, Joe, good to see you, man.

Joseph Valtellini (0:07)

I'm pumped to be here. I'm like a little kid here right now.

Joe Rogan (0:09)

Me too, man.

Joseph Valtellini (0:10)

Smiling around and loving it.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Well, I'm excited. There's a big Glory event this Friday in Los Angeles. I'll be there. And it's, you got two world titles, right?

Joseph Valtellini (0:19)

Yeah, two.

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Is it two world titles?

Joseph Valtellini (0:21)

It's two world titles.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

You have Jason Willness and Israel Edison, yeah.

Joseph Valtellini (0:24)

That's a wicked fight.

Joe Rogan (0:25)

Wicked fight.

Joseph Valtellini (0:26)

Yeah, and then you're looking at Matt Embry, another Canadian kid, against Dutch beast, Robin Van Roosmalen.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Oh yeah, that's right. That's right.

Joseph Valtellini (0:33)

That's going to be, yeah. That's on UFC Fight Pass.

Joe Rogan (0:36)

Yes.

Yeah. I'm so psyched that the UFC and UFC Fight Pass is embracing Glory. It's super exciting for me.

Joseph Valtellini (0:43)

I think so. And it was that huge collision card in Germany. You had Rico versus Bodder, and UFC ran that pay-per-view for us.

Joe Rogan (0:50)

Oh, really?

Joseph Valtellini (0:51)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

No kidding.

Joseph Valtellini (0:51)

That was the first time the UFC has run anything other than UFC. So that's huge, man. And that's for us is a big accomplishment for kickboxing.

Joe Rogan (0:59)

Well, we've talked about in this podcast, we were just talking about it a couple minutes ago. I think kickboxing, especially high-level kickboxing like Glory, is one of the most exciting sports in the world. And it perplexes me and many other people why it's not more exciting.

Joseph Valtellini (1:13)

That's crazy.

Joe Rogan (1:14)

Because it's not hard to understand what's going on.

One of the things about MMA that is very important to me is when the fights go to the ground, I have to explain step by step what's going on. Because otherwise people that don't know ground fighting, they're all of a sudden like, why is he tapping? What's going on? You don't see exactly what's going on. But when someone explains it to you, you see it. With kickboxing, it's pretty obvious.

Joseph Valtellini (1:36)

It's pretty obvious. You have kicks and punches and knees.

Joe Rogan (1:38)

Yeah, just people getting smashed.

Joseph Valtellini (1:40)

I don't know. I don't get it. I seriously don't understand.

Joe Rogan (1:43)

Dana White has a really good theory.

He thinks that PKA karate from like, you remember the 1980s when they used to have those PKA karate matches on ESPN?

I remember when they wore the karate pants and the big booties on their feet.

Joseph Valtellini (1:56)

Yeah, and they were bouncing around.

Joe Rogan (1:57)

It was really just sloppy boxing with some shitty kicks.

Joseph Valtellini (2:00)

But that's what even American kickboxing, it's like they have a kick rule. So what would happen, they would throw eight kicks in the beginning of the round, and then all of a sudden they box for the rest of the round.

Joe Rogan (2:09)

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And for whatever reason, and above the waist as well.

Which I think one of the things about kickboxing as opposed to the traditional martial arts or like taekwondo or karate is like, as soon as you start adding leg kicks, like it changes the whole game.

Joseph Valtellini (2:24)

It's a totally different game.

Joe Rogan (2:25)

It changes everything. And we were talking before this fight about your fight, before this podcast rather, about your fight with Raymond Daniels, which is one of my favorite fights ever.

Joseph Valtellini (2:32)

Thank you.

Joe Rogan (2:33)

Because he is this traditional karate guy, he was a point fighting champion and he has wicked kicks. He's just one of the most spectacular and dynamic guys in kickboxing.

But, your leg kicks and your constant pressure and just rock solid Muay Thai fundamentals, you just chop them down, chop them down, and then eventually head kick them.

Joseph Valtellini (2:52)

Yeah, it's that those movement fighters are very tricky. And I think what made that fight super exciting was that old school UFC mentality, you had two different arts, you know, battling to see which one was better. And Raymond Daniels was undefeated. He was just knocking people out with spinning hook kicks every time he was fighting.

So you know, as a smart, intelligent fighter, you got to put pressure, and I remember we had a conversation about, you know, guys like Wonderboy Thompson.

Why isn't his opponents calling someone like me to do it? But you had a good point. It takes a special fighter to really close distance and pressure like that and to be able to execute a game plan with heavy low kicks like that.