Joe Rogan once wanted to be a martial artist. The UFC commentator was a champion taekwondo competitor with some serious talent, which is apparent from even the few grainy tapes we have of a teenage Rogan’s martial arts days. Not to mention his recent videos of martial arts training which were praised by martial arts enthusiasts.

But, frequent headaches and fear of potential injuries caused the Bostonian to give up competing in martial arts despite being obsessed with it. The JRE podcast host narrated the exact moment that made him determined to quit martial arts to comedian and podcaster Aakash Singh.

Joe Rogan recalls sending opponent to hospital as a teen

Joe Rogan recounted one of his matches at the US Open National Taekwondo Tournament. During one of the bouts, a 19-year-old Rogan, who had been “very enthusiastic” about fighting until then, “fought this kid who was, I think he was the Illinois state champion. And I hit him in the head with a wheel kick… and it has insane power, I mean insane power… And I caught this guy, he came at me with what’s called a stepping roundhouse kick.”

The kick, however, “caught him running in and he went out,” a wide-eyed Rogan recalled, “face plant, snoring. Never woke up, never woke up. He was unconscious for half an hour. They put him in a stretcher. I was watching. He never got out of that stretcher. They took him to the hospital.”

Rogan was disgusted seeing his opponent’s condition and felt he could have been the one on the receiving end of that knockout. This experience permanently changed Rogan’s perspective and was the moment that would eventually lead him to retire from competitive martial arts.

“I have no idea what happened to him and it freaked me out… And then I was thinking I’m not immune to that, someone could 100% do that to me… It changed my feeling about it. I didn’t have the same enthusiasm after that. That was probably like the beginning of the end for me,” Rogan told Aakash Singh.

Rogan was afraid he would get permanent brain damage

In prior conversations, the Texas resident has shed more light on the myriad of reasons he hung up his gloves. After winning the US Open National Taekwondo Championship at 19, Joe Rogan went on to win the Massachusetts state taekwondo championship four times. He also started training others in combat sports along with training in kickboxing.

However, he and his training partners would go all out when sparring. These hard sparring sessions, Rogan feared, were causing the constant headaches he had started getting. And continuing with them, he felt, would only worsen the condition as well as give him potentially permanent brain damage.

The 56-year-old, who had already soured on the sport given his sickening experiences, fear of permanent cognitive damage, as well as no real money in professional kickboxing back then, decided to retire at the age of 21. What are your thoughts on Joe Rogan’s story?