Joe Rogan extensively trained in and competed as a Taekwondo athlete in his teenage years. In his early 20s, he gradually transitioned into being a stand-up comic. He also worked as a reality TV host and was a Hollywood actor.
Rogan ultimately became a staple of the UFC MMA organization, serving as an interviewer and later as a commentator.
When Did Joe Rogan Start Working With the UFC and How Did He Get the Job?
Joe Rogan hosted fellow comedian Sebastian Maniscalco on episode #1237 of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast back in Feb. 2019. He notably made an allusion to his first UFC assignment, wherein he worked as an on-screen personality and interviewer for the organization at UFC 12 in Feb. 1997. He worked a few more shows for the UFC before departing a couple of years later and returning as a commentator at UFC 37.5 in Jun. 2002.
When asked about how he started working with the UFC, Rogan stated, “I started in 1997. I was the post-fight interviewer. It was just a position that was available, and the UFC was very small back then. Very few people knew what it was. It was off cable. You couldn’t get it on cable, only on satellite. And they needed someone to do post-fight interviews.”
He alluded to having been a part of the martial arts world well before that—courtesy of his past as a Taekwondo competitor, his experience in a few kickboxing matches, and his work as a martial arts teacher. Rogan indicated that he’d started training in the art of Jiu-Jitsu when he first got hired by the UFC in 1997. However, he implied that he worked for the UFC as an interviewer only for “two years.”
Rogan explained that his earnings through stand-up comedy exceeded his earnings as a UFC interviewer, adding that it became economically unfeasible for him to continue traveling to and working at the UFC events. The martial arts aficionado explained that he, therefore, departed the UFC, albeit he was still a fan of the organization and even attended some of its events.
Moreover, Rogan harked back to the Fertitta brothers’ Zuffa takeover of the UFC in 2001, which witnessed Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta’s high school friend, Dana White, start his reign as the UFC president. He recalled having various conversations with White regarding MMA. Apparently, White then offered him the role of a UFC commentator.
While Rogan claims to have initially told White that he simply wanted to watch the fights with his friends and not work for the UFC, things soon changed. The Taekwondo veteran recalled that he worked for negligible pay when the UFC faced considerable financial challenges early on, and he subsequently became a core member of the MMA organization. He said, “I did, like, 12 of them for free.”
Since rejoining the UFC in 2002, he’s worked as a color commentator and post-fight Octagon interviewer. In recent years, he’s primarily worked at UFC pay-per-view events that are held in the United States of America.