JRE MMA Show #112 with Don Frye

Joe sits down with mixed martial artist Don Frye: a UFC Hall of Famer, former pro wrestler, and co-host, along with Dan Severin, of "Dan and Don’s Toxic Masculinity Podcast."

Don FryeguestJoe Roganhost

Jun 27, 20241h 55mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

150 min read · 30,347 words

0:00 – 15:00
(drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast,…
1. DFDon Frye
  (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) Don Frye, it's a goddamn honor and a pleasure.
3. DFDon Frye
  Hey, partner. Thank you. Uh, you know, like I said earlier, first time, first and only time we met, I insulted you. It was-
4. JRJoe Rogan
  I don't remember that.
5. DFDon Frye
  It was down there in Alabama, right?
6. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs) Those are early days, right?
7. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, number 12.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, UFC 12. That was my first one.
9. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. And-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  What'd you say?
11. DFDon Frye
  Well, we were backstage, and, you know, they introduced us, and I says, you know, "Do you know who this guy is?" They said, and I says, "Yeah, he, he plays that real dumb guy on, (laughs) on the news radio show." (laughs)
12. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
13. DFDon Frye
  And you looked so-
14. JRJoe Rogan
  But that's not an insult.
15. DFDon Frye
  ... and you looked so hurt. Then I find out-
16. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
17. DFDon Frye
  ... I find out, you know, your character's really actually part of who you are, and (laughs) ...
18. JRJoe Rogan
  That's part of the problem. It's very, it was very close to who I am, unfortunately. (laughs)
19. DFDon Frye
  All right, fine. I've been watching your dr- ... And you're a smart bastard, man. I'm impressed.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  I have a good memory. I'm not that smart-
21. DFDon Frye
  No, you ...
22. JRJoe Rogan
  ... but I have a good memory.
23. DFDon Frye
  You know what the hell's going on in a lot of the stuff, you know?
24. JRJoe Rogan
  I know what some things, some things.
25. DFDon Frye
  The Bob Lazar stuff? I mean, that's impressive.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, yeah. Are you interested in UFOs?
27. DFDon Frye
  Oh, yeah.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
29. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, yeah.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  A lot of folks in Arizona are interested in UFOs.
15:00 – 30:00
That's okay. …
1. DFDon Frye
  that gal who works... Who? Oh, fuck me. I'm bad at names sometimes.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  That's okay.
3. DFDon Frye
  I had a st- I had a stroke, you know, a few years ago.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  You did?
5. DFDon Frye
  Ha- Hemorrhagic stroke, yeah, after surgery.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, shit.
7. DFDon Frye
  So I get lost sometimes. Um, um... Fuck me. You can edit this, right?
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, it doesn't matter anyway.
9. DFDon Frye
  (laughs)
10. JRJoe Rogan
  So Dan was doing bodyguard work.
11. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, for Robin, the... From, um... Who's a radio guy in New York City?
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Robin Quivers?
13. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Howard Stern?
15. DFDon Frye
  Right, right.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, really?
17. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  No shit?
19. DFDon Frye
  And his- and his gray T-shirt, yeah. (laughs)
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Wow. (laughs)
21. DFDon Frye
  Everybody's in suits and Dan's in his gray T-shirt. (laughs) And so, uh, they, you know... Then we saw Dan fight and I called him up, I said, "Fuck," you know. I said, "Dan, this is Don Frye, remember me?" He went, "Yeah. What are you doing, Don?" I says, "Playing fireman, playing horseshoer," you know. I was just-
22. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
23. DFDon Frye
  "Can..." I said, "This UFC stuff, can you get me in on it?" And he says, "Yeah." So he ended up getting me some fights, probably about five or six fights, you know, around the country. And, uh, you know, the check's still in the mail, you know. (laughs) Um, uh-
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Was this pre-UFC?
25. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, yeah.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, so you fought MMA before the UFC?
27. DFDon Frye
  Oh, it was, it was warehouse fighting.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
29. DFDon Frye
  You know, it wasn't MMA. It was NHB.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Right, right. So... Right.
30:00 – 45:00
(laughs) …
1. JRJoe Rogan
  that.
2. DFDon Frye
  (laughs)
3. JRJoe Rogan
  So you got a few that are just hanging in there and then-
4. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. (laughs)
5. JRJoe Rogan
  ... you got your, your neck fused. That is goddamn wild.
6. DFDon Frye
  Well, that's ... It goes all the way down to the crack of my ass, you know. My-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Ooh.
8. DFDon Frye
  ... ass crack goes from my balls up to my shoulder blades, yeah. (laughs)
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Wow. That is crazy. So it's just all scar tissue in there, and, and bolts and screws and plates and-
10. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. So if I can go down there to Columbia and get, you know, the stem cell ...
11. JRJoe Rogan
  You might have to live there for a few years.
12. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Just have them shoot you up every day.
14. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. (laughs)
15. JRJoe Rogan
  Who knows? I'm ... You know, I'm a, I'm a big fan of, uh, stem cells. They can do some wild shit down there.
16. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
17. JRJoe Rogan
  I know a lot of guys who've gone to that bioxcellerator thing and, uh, that, that facility down there and had a, a l- ... a really good result.
18. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. I'm excited about it, you know. Look at me, I'm giddy. I can hardly sit still.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Have you had any stem cells before?
20. DFDon Frye
  No, sir.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, it's-
22. DFDon Frye
  No, sir.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  It's ... They can do amazing stuff, but, you know, that's a lot of muscle. There's a lot going on there.
24. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. You know, and they're gonna do my shoulders too, 'cause-
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
26. DFDon Frye
  ... I have, um, partial replacements in my shoulders.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  What do you ... What do you got going on there? Like, resurfaced?
28. DFDon Frye
  Uh, no, just worn out, you know.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  You said partial replacements? Like-
30. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
45:00 – 1:00:00
Uh, I think it…
1. JRJoe Rogan
  ones they did?
2. DFDon Frye
  Uh, I think it was only 45.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs) 'Cause-
4. DFDon Frye
  Small show.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs) Uh, uh, a medium show.
6. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  'Cause they did some, uh, some Saitama Super Arena shows where it was just insanity.
8. DFDon Frye
  Oh, we did, uh, Tokyo Dome. I did Antonio Inoki's retirement match.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, yeah?
10. DFDon Frye
  Tokyo Dome, 70,000, so they sold that out and then they sold 5,000 standing tickets, you know.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  Wow.
12. DFDon Frye
  They got permission from the party part to do that, so I did that, and then they did the, um, national soccer arena, you know, for, uh, PRIDE K-1 New Year's Eve event.
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, wow.
14. DFDon Frye
  That's when, that's when, um, uh, Jerome Le Banu ki- mm-hmm, knocked me on my ass. (laughs)
15. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm. Yeah, you had that one kickboxing fight against him. That's, uh, that's a crazy deal to take, to take a kickboxing fight against one of the great kickboxers of all time.
16. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, yeah. And, um-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  Was that a ego deal too?
18. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, ego and-
19. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
20. DFDon Frye
  Well, the thing is, the deal was we were supposed to do a-
21. JRJoe Rogan
  An MMA fight.
22. DFDon Frye
  ... MMA fight, yeah.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  And then he backed out of that?
24. DFDon Frye
  I don't know what happened, but man-
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Just never happened?
26. DFDon Frye
  There's a lot of things that happened, Joe, that I'm finding out now, you know, 20 years later, that, uh, he, you know, the, the two scumbags that were my agent at the time-
27. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, really?
28. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, yeah.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, so they made some backdoor deals?
30. DFDon Frye
  Mm-hmm. Yeah.
1:00:00 – 1:15:00
Right. …
1. JRJoe Rogan
  that... And sometimes the opponent didn't know.
2. DFDon Frye
  Right.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  And the guy would go out and start throwing haymakers at them and kick them and take them down, stomp them, and you're like, "Whoa."
4. DFDon Frye
  Well, it happened here too. I mean, you had Gene LeBell-
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, yeah.
6. DFDon Frye
  ... you know, who was the (laughs) the muscle for his parents, you know?
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
8. DFDon Frye
  His family. You know, and then Roddy Piper-
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Yep.
10. DFDon Frye
  ... was a muscle for a while.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, yeah. Well- well, it's, um, a lot of guys who were, uh, in pro wrestling were legit combat sports athletes.
12. DFDon Frye
  Right.
13. JRJoe Rogan
  And some of them were just pro wrestlers. They just got into it just as entertainers. So there was a, a wide variety. And over in Japan, Takada was kind of, uh, you know, he was a huge superstar over there. And he... But Rickson would not agree to anything other than a real fight.
14. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
15. JRJoe Rogan
  So if you watch that fight, it's very clear. Yeah.
16. DFDon Frye
  (laughs)
17. JRJoe Rogan
  But some of the fights weren't, right?
18. DFDon Frye
  Right.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  And you kind of had to, like, look at it with a discerning eye. Like, you'd see a guy get caught in a heel hook and you're like, "Hm." Like, "That looks a little fishy." Like...
20. DFDon Frye
  Well, I remember, um, after Ken Shamrock and I fought, I went to a WWE show here in, in Tucson. And The Undertaker, he asked me if that was a work. Uh, he just goes, "'Cause you both ended up in a heel hook." I'm like, "Well, fuck yeah we both ended up in a heel hook." You know? We both... He had my foot and that was the only thing I could grab, you know? (laughs)
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
22. DFDon Frye
  Shit. That was a, that was a shoot, buddy. Yeah.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah. It looked real.
24. DFDon Frye
  Oh, it... Believe me, it was real.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, Ken was one of the very first guys to really master heel hooks.
26. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  And use those in the UFC early on. Remember him?
28. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  My God.
30. DFDon Frye
  Well, he, you know, had to hairline fracture both my freaking ankles, you know, for that.
1:15:00 – 1:20:13
Yeah, stupid. Fucking stupid.…
1. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, stupid. Fucking stupid.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  But you want, you will ... You still want to do it right now. The, the thing about guys like you, it's like you never lose the itch.
3. DFDon Frye
  Right.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  It's your body just fails you.
5. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Your bo- ... And the tougher the guy, the more the body starts to fall apart because you're willing to train through pain.
7. DFDon Frye
  Mm-hmm.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  You look at guys like, um, I mean, uh, Cain Velasquez is a great example. One of the greatest of all times, but his body just couldn't hang in there. His, his knees blew out, his back blew out, his neck blew out, his shoulders blew out. He had all these surgeries and eventually just stopped being the guy that everybody knew was Cain, you know?
9. DFDon Frye
  Mm-hmm.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  His, his body just wouldn't do what his mind could do.
11. DFDon Frye
  Yeah, you lose.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
13. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. You, you learn that in p- in, in amateur wrestling, though, you know?
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
15. DFDon Frye
  You learn to keep going.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
17. DFDon Frye
  You, you know, um... I think I broke ... I first broke my neck when I was in college, and, um, didn't know it. I thought I'd fucked up my shoulder, you know. Um-
18. JRJoe Rogan
  'Cause it was shooting down your shoulder?
19. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
21. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. And, um, so what happened was, uh, Dan Severn's little baby brother, Rod, and I, we were roommates, and we went down, uh, to my parents' house, um, for Thanksgiving or something. Anyways, we were out on those fucking three-wheelers.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, no.
23. DFDon Frye
  Yeah.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  That's how you did it?
25. DFDon Frye
  Yeah. Yeah.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, no.
27. DFDon Frye
  Drinking and going over and, and, um, you know, last, last jump of the day.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, no.
29. DFDon Frye
  Ended up being the last jump. (laughs) Uh, you know, uh, we've been there for a couple of hours, gone through a few cases of beer, and truck, truck pulls up, and, uh, they get out, you know. "Look, look at the little sissies," you know, 'cause they had the shoulder pads, the knee pads, the gloves, you know-
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.

Episode duration: 1:55:22

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(drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast,…

That's okay. …

(laughs) …

Uh, I think it…

Right. …

Yeah, stupid. Fucking stupid.…

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