JRE MMA Show #59 with Kamaru Usman

Joe Rogan (0:11)

And we're live, what's up, how are you?

SPEAKER_2 (0:13)

What's up, Joe?

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Dude, you're on a roller coaster ride. What is it like to be the champ? What's the feeling like? This is fresh for you.

Kamaru Usman (0:21)

Well, first of all, I just want to say, man, it's such an honor to be here.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

The honor's mine.

Kamaru Usman (0:27)

I never, I'm gonna be honest.

I'm, my thing is I'm just gonna be 100% totally transparent.

I was never, I never really watched the show. I never really kind of heard of the show. Of course, I heard of you and all the things you do. I'm like, oh yeah, it's Fairfactor guy.

But I never really heard of the show until like after like a fight or two in the UFC and people are like tagging me and shit. Like, yo, Joe Rogan's talking about you. Joe Rogan talking about you in the podcast. I'm like, fucking podcast? Cause I never listened to podcasts at the time. I was like, what are you talking about? Till I finally started listening. I'm like, oh, this dude is for real. This dude got some pool.

SPEAKER_2 (1:06)

He got some people watching this shit.

Kamaru Usman (1:08)

Random people would tag me. Oh, Joe, I was talking about you today on the podcast. I'm like, oh man, this guy's for real. And then every time after that, that I see you, I'm like, what's up, Joe?

Joe Rogan (1:20)

Yeah, we've been talking about you for a long time, man. We were just with your friend out there. We were watching a video of us talking about you back when you were ranked number 12th.

And I was saying, I think you could fight for the title right now.

Kamaru Usman (1:31)

And I like to attest it to, I think, cause I went back once I started kind of researching you, I like to go back newer research. And I'm like fucking Joe's been with the sport for the beginning. Like you were in the back with hair.

It was hair freaking interviewing the guys during the tournament that were fighting multiple fights at night. And you were interviewing those guys and I was like, dang, even back there, Joe had skills, Joe was the beast! I had interview Ameran hospice It was no shaking behind it cause, one thing about me, Me, I've gotten into commentating and things like that now, and I'm like, dang Joe, it didn't seem nervous. You were just like a freaking natural at it.

And the sport was just growing at that time.

Joe Rogan (2:15)

I was like, damn, there was nobody watching back then. It wasn't as much pressure, you know? It wasn't like coming into it today.

Kamaru Usman (2:21)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:21)

ESPN, pay-per-view, all that deal. It would be a lot of pressure. But back then, it was just fun. Yeah. It was weird, man. The first one I did was in Dothan, Alabama, and it was weird, I don't know if it was a high school gym, or some small auditorium, tiny little place.

It was very weird.

Kamaru Usman (2:38)

Yeah, but you made it look like a freaking certain little walk in the park. I mean, it was, I was like, damn, Joe's good at this. Joe's been doing this shit for a while.

Joe Rogan (2:47)

Well, it's an interesting thing to see. To see it progress from 1997 to where it's at in 2019 The biggest difference is not just the amount of eyes that it gets, and the amount of people that it paid attention to. The real difference is the level of athlete.

It's a giant, giant leap, like in no other sport. I don't think there's another sport from 1993 to 2019 where the athletes are almost, it's almost unrecognizable how much better the fighters are.

Kamaru Usman (3:16)

Absolutely. You know, it's now, back in the day, it was like, okay, you finished your college career, you finished all this, you've got to the height of whatever sport you could be, let's start fighting.

And so, guys were coming in at 28, 27, starting to learn the tricks. Now you got freaking 10-year-old kids sparring. There's all these crazy videos, like little bitty kids fighting in Russia or other places, like they're full on MMA fighting now.

Joe Rogan (3:47)

Yeah, it's a totally different world.

Kamaru Usman (3:48)

It's like, yeah, whole promotion. I'm like, man, by the time these guys get to 16, 17, they're gonna be killers.

Joe Rogan (3:54)

Yeah, but if you go back and watch a boxing match from like 93, a world champion boxer, like Marvin Hagler, perfect example, Marvin Hagler from the 80s, could absolutely hang with middleweights. Like he would fit right in with world champions today.