#933 - Julie Kedzie

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Five, three, you started at three, two. Ah, tricky.

And we're live. How are you, Julie?

Julie Kedzie (0:15)

I'm doing well.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

What's happening? We were just talking before this podcast started. You're working on your masters in nonfiction creative writing.

Julie Kedzie (0:23)

Creative nonfiction, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:25)

What is creative nonfiction? How does that work?

Julie Kedzie (0:26)

It's actually very encompassing of a lot of things. Think about memoir or biography, essays especially. We're a bunch of essayists. We're a bunch of nerds. They pick about, I think, nine or ten of us out of a group of 150 for this program, and then we write a ton of essays and we read so much. It's insane.

Joe Rogan (0:46)

It's amazing how many female MMA fighters, not that this is a knock against male MMA fighters, are really fucking smart. Like Rosie Sexton. You know, there's a ton of them. You can go down the list.

Julie Kedzie (0:59)

Yeah. Peggy Morgan. She's got the best. Really intelligent female fighters. I think there's something with MMA and creativity. And I think whereas because the opportunities maybe haven't been out there for women as much, when it comes to like, I guess, finding an avenue for that creativity, they go into other things like academics and arts.

And then they find MMA and then they try to do both.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

I wonder if it's that.

I mean, I think there's probably a bunch of reasons. Roxanne Matafari. That's another one. She's super smart. Super smart.

I always wonder if it's like maybe it's such an odd thing, especially when you started. I mean, you're a real pioneer in a lot of ways. I mean, you fought Gina Carano in 2007, 10 years ago.

Julie Kedzie (1:40)

Yeah, it was a long time ago.

Joe Rogan (1:41)

It's crazy when you think about it.

MMA was like non-existent in the public sphere back then. It just wasn't something that people talked about for women. But the women that did get into it and reach like a professional level, you have to be like extremely daring. It's kind of a crazy occupation.

Julie Kedzie (1:58)

It is.

And I think that those of us who started back then, of course, I'm not knocking the people who are doing it now because they're tremendous athletes and the women going into it now, but the environment was such that you had to be really obsessive. And I'm sure that many other female athletes at this time have that kind of obsessive streak. But I think at that time, because we scour the Internet like the MMA underground, I was always looking for fights. I was always trying to find somebody to fight me, or the SureDog forums, all that stuff, before it got kind of wacky.

Joe Rogan (2:27)

Trolley.

Julie Kedzie (2:28)

Yeah, exactly. I know, it's like, who wants to fight me? Who wants to fight me? And somebody say, I want to fight you. Yes, thank you. I'm so grateful. It was a weird atmosphere back then.

Joe Rogan (2:36)

Yeah, well, it was people doing it just for the pure passion of it. I got to talk to Jeremy Horn about this.

Jeremy, I think, has had 150 pro fights, something crazy like that. And he was like, you have to realize, back then, we were doing it because we wanted to do it. No one was thinking that this was going to be an avenue for you to be the next Conor McGregor, the next Ronda Rousey. It didn't exist.

Julie Kedzie (3:00)

Yeah, my very first fight, they videotaped me, it was for Jeff Osborne in Hook and Shoot, and they videotaped me, and they said, what do you want to do with this? And I was like, oh, I'm going to be in the UFC. And that was 2004

And everybody laughed at me, and I was like, no, I'm going to be in the UFC. Just watch me.

I actually can't believe I did, but I mean, I can believe it. That was my goal. That's what I did. I didn't do well in the UFC, but I got there. You know, I checked that one off. But, you know, it wasn't about being that superstar. It was about where you would get to fight, you know, what you would get to do. And I don't know, just getting to fight was such a pleasure.

You know, just the absolute, I have a fight, the excitement you would have. Like, I have a fight. Oh, my God, this is great.

Joe Rogan (3:38)

That's a crazy feeling to try to explain to someone that has never done anything remotely as dangerous as competing in MMA.