The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience - Fight Companion - January 14, 2018
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Unfiltered fight talk, MMA evolution, and combat jiu-jitsu innovation
- This Fight Companion episode is a freewheeling, four-hour hangout where Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Jimmy Smith, and Brian Callan watch UFC St. Louis, drift into wild tangents, and break down technique and careers. They celebrate Jimmy Smith’s move from Bellator to the UFC booth, praise Darren Elkins’ comeback and Jeremy Stephens’ KO over Doo Ho Choi, and heavily preview Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman’s rise. Eddie dives deep into jiu-jitsu meta, body triangles, leg locks, and his Combat Jiu-Jitsu ruleset. Along the way they hit on fighter health, scoring reform, crazy old-school MMA stories, and the brutal realities of injuries, weight cuts, and careers in fighting.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasJimmy Smith’s move to the UFC underscores how specialized and demanding MMA commentary really is.
They discuss the difference between play-by-play and color, the need to deeply know the sport and genuinely care, and how hard post-fight interviews and dead-air “fill” segments can be, even for veterans.
Darren Elkins and Jeremy Stephens embody the modern ‘tough guy isn’t enough’ era of MMA.
Both win through grit plus refined skills—Elkins surviving a brutal first round to choke Michael Johnson, and Stephens patiently walking down and finishing Choi—illustrating that durability must be paired with strategy and adaptation.
Francis Ngannou vs. Stipe Miocic was poised as the most consequential heavyweight title fight in UFC history.
They frame Stipe as chasing a record third defense while Ngannou is the once-in-a-generation physical outlier with rudimentary but terrifyingly effective tools, making the bout a crossroads of dominance vs. raw potential.
Eddie Bravo’s evolving jiu-jitsu philosophy shows how meta-games shift over time.
He describes how 10th Planet went from obsessing over body triangles and neck cranks (Dsevs) to prioritizing classic rear naked chokes, then back to deeper body-triangle study because of EBI overtime and Combat Jiu-Jitsu realities.
Leg locks are far more dangerous—and far more sophisticated—than early MMA made them look.
They recall old fights where leg-lockers got pounded out and contrast that with today’s Danaher Death Squad era, where leg lock entries are faster, tighter, and positionally safer, changing how viable they are at high levels.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes“You only have so many five‑round fights in your body.”
— Jimmy Smith
“It’s not enough to be a tough guy. Welcome to the club.”
— Joe Rogan
“If I don’t win, I don’t eat, man—that motivation is the most powerful thing in the world when it comes to fighting.”
— Jimmy Smith (on Ngannou’s background)
“Have faith in your triangle. Too many people bail out before it works.”
— Eddie Bravo
“You’re not the show. You’re just trying to extract information out of this person.”
— Jimmy Smith (on post-fight interviews)
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