Joe Rogan explains why he quit promising combat sports career after scoring a harrowing KO … ‘It was a time I never recovered from’

UFC icon Joe Rogan once had a promising combat sports career, but after a harrowing experience he put down the gloves and replaced them with the microphone and headphones.

Joe Rogan's martial arts career began in karate and taekwondo when he was just 14 years old, and it was once believed that he had a bright future in the sport.

Since then, Rogan has become one of the most recognizable faces and voices in MMA after turning his attention to commentary, where he has been the UFC color commentator almost since the company's inception.

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Joe Rogan explains why he quit his promising Taekwondo career after scoring a harrowing KO

When the 57-year-old was at the height of his powers, he regularly competed in Taekwondo competition, and at the age of 19, Rogan won the US Open Championship.

However, at the same age, the UFC icon had an experience that made him decide he didn't want to continue in the sport, and a moment he has stated he will never recover from.

“I was really excited about fighting until I was 19, it was a time I never recovered from,” Rogan began explaining in an episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

“When I was 19, I fought in this tournament in Anaheim, California, it was the National (Championships), I was the state champion of Massachusetts, and I fought this kid who I think was from Illinois, he was the state champion of Illinois.

“I hit him in the head with a wheel kick, and what a wheel kick is is like spinning your body around, so I stand with my left foot forward, and I spin my right heel around in a circle and it has insane power , I mean insane power,” Rogan further explained.

“It's my legs, it's my upper body, it has a whip on it, it has so much torque and I caught this guy perfectly. He came at me with what's called a stepping roundhouse kick, so he had his front leg forward and he stepped forward with his left leg as he was going to kick, and I spun with my right leg at the same time.

“He went outside, face planted, snored and never woke up. Never woke up. He was unconscious for half an hour, they put him on a stretcher, I watched. He never got off that stretcher, they took him to the hospital, I have no idea what happened to him and it scared me,” Rogan admitted emotionally.

Since it was a championship format tournament, Rogan entered again that same day but ultimately lost.

Joe Rogan describes the conversation he had with his coach after the harrowing KO

After falling short in the tournament, Rogan knew his perspective on the sport had changed and he no longer wanted to compete on the mats.

He returned to his hometown of Boston and spoke to his head coach at the time about the feelings he felt after scoring such a harrowing knockout.

“When I went back to Boston, my head instructor, he wasn't there in California when I was fighting… And he said to me, 'I heard you had a great knockout?' and I said, 'Yes, I thought he was dead, he never rose.' He says, “Sometimes they die.” I was 19 and fighting for zero money.

“My heel hurt. The next day I was limping because my heel hurt from his face. And then I thought: I'm not immune to that, someone could 100% do that to me, we're hitting each other's bones.

“It changed how I felt about it, I never had the same enthusiasm after that, that was the beginning of the end for me,” Rogan admitted.

Luckily for the 57-year-old, his passion for combat sports led him on a new path and he became a UFC commentator in the early 2000s.

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