JRE MMA Show #143 with Sean Strickland

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. SSSean Strickland0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) What's up, John Strickland? What's happening? We made it happen.

   4. SSSean Strickland0:15

      We made it, bro.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      What's up?

   6. SSSean Strickland0:16

      I'm finally pseudo-famous enough to be on-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      (laughs)

   8. SSSean Strickland0:19

      ... the Rogan podcast. Fuckin' let's go.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      Oh, you're pretty famous after Saturday night. Hey, how's your eye?

   10. SSSean Strickland0:24

       Oh, man, the guy was try-

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       It's still pretty red.

   12. SSSean Strickland0:26

       The guy was trying to fucking salute his fuhrer, bro, fucking straight to the eye. (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       (laughs)

   14. SSSean Strickland0:32

       He's, he's Russian, he can't say that.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       (laughs) Let's see-

   16. SSSean Strickland0:35

       He only moved to Germany when he was 15. Oh, fuck, I dunno, man. Fucking life's weird, dude. It's fucking, is he Muslim? We all know how that goes. Oh, fuck, I'm ready to get canceled.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       Well, it's, it's-

   18. SSSean Strickland0:44

       All right, guys, I'm joking.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       ... he's just joking.

   20. SSSean Strickland0:45

       I'm just joking.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       He's just joking.

   22. SSSean Strickland0:46

       You guys.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       Can't we just joke around, folks?

   24. SSSean Strickland0:48

       (laughs)

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       Isn't this America? Um, that was a great fight.

   26. SSSean Strickland0:51

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:51

       Oh, it was a good one. It was a really, really good fight. And it was really interesting too because, um, that guy is so used to blowing people out in the first round.

   28. SSSean Strickland0:58

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       You know? And he came out so hard in that first round.

   30. SSSean Strickland1:01

       Yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) …

   1. SSSean Strickland15:00

      recommending me today."

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:01

      (laughs)

   3. SSSean Strickland15:01

      "Maybe I could ... Maybe I could find something that'll give me a little serotonin boost."

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:04

      Find some happiness in a one-click.

   5. SSSean Strickland15:06

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      Yeah.

   7. SSSean Strickland15:06

      And then so, it's like you ha- ... And then you have like ... And then on top of that, now we go full circle. You have two parents working, and I'm going mostly on the w- the West Coast, you have shitty fucking kids, dude. Las Vegas, graduation rates less than 50%. High school dropout, no GED. I'm not one to talk. But how do you raise, how do you raise a family, a successful family, when your kids are being raised by the system?

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:32

      Right.

   9. SSSean Strickland15:32

      By fucking TikTok. After my fight, I had the doctor. You know, good, good guy, the doctor at UFC. He comes up to me, he's like, "Hey, why you, why you talking bad about Las Vegas?" I'm like, "Well, 'Doctor John," whatever your name is. 'Doctor,' you're a cool dude. "What, what school do your kids go to?" And he just like gets a big, like, smirk. I'm like, "Yeah, I'm sure you're paying like 50, 50-plus a year-

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:52

       Right.

   11. SSSean Strickland15:52

       ... to educate your kids." Like ... So, again, man. I mean, where's the reset button? Maybe there is no reset button.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       I think the reset button is teaching people that there's things that you can do in life that can transform you. And I think, as weird as that sounds, a lot of people learn that through watching people like you evolve through fighting, because it's the most difficult thing you could do. Outside of war and being a cop and being a fireman, it's the most difficult physical pursuit that a person can get involved with for a living.

   13. SSSean Strickland16:21

       Mm-hmm. But again, we're talking on such a deeper, fundamental level. If you have no belief, like, we could say America's becoming atheists. Like, we could say that. If you have no belief, if you have no moral right, no wrong-

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:33

       Right.

   15. SSSean Strickland16:34

       ... and you're not taught this from, like, a stable family, and you're being raised ... I mean, like, literally, America's becoming like Communist China, where like we're letting our school system dictate values and beliefs. We're letting the system tell you what your kids are. And again, I'm agnostic, so I'm not, I'm not telling anybody to go find Jesus, you know? If you're gonna find somebody, at least, at l- least let it be fucking Jesus, right? But, uh ... I mean, how do you, how do you fix a moral decay of a society when that's just where we're going?

   16. JRJoe Rogan17:02

       Hmm.

   17. SSSean Strickland17:03

       You got TikTok, man. Even in, even fucking Communist China will, will mitigate what shows on TikTok, but they give us utter fucking filth.

   18. JRJoe Rogan17:10

       But it's just, uh ... I know exactly what you're saying. And I, I ... You know, I went through the public school system, but I did it in the 1980s, and it was very different.

   19. SSSean Strickland17:17

       Ah, it's getting worse. Getting worse.

   20. JRJoe Rogan17:18

       Yeah, it's a lot worse now.

   21. SSSean Strickland17:19

       But, I mean, how do you ... Like, again, like if you were, you know, if you were God, Joe Rogan, how do you fix this?

   22. JRJoe Rogan17:23

       You gotta pump ... You gotta pump a lot of money into inner cities. You gotta, you gotta figure out a way to y- make programs and, um ... There's, there's places in this country that, for decades and decades, have been filled with crime and gang violence and drug addiction, and that's all they know. And that's, that's the standard of their community and that's what you grow up with and that's what you see. And if, and if we don't fix that, the odds of those people coming out of there ... I mean, there's a few that come out of there that become, you know, um, whether they're artists or athletes or whatever it is, they find a way through. They figure it out. But they're the rare ones.

   23. SSSean Strickland18:00

       Okay.

   24. JRJoe Rogan18:00

       They're the rare ones. What we gotta do is create systems where you have opportunity for kids, and also mitigate the crime and mitigate the violence. And, and d- ... Whatever the fuck has to be done. Look, if they can dump billions of dollars into Ukraine-

   25. SSSean Strickland18:16

       (laughs) They fucking can.

   26. JRJoe Rogan18:17

       If they could dump billions of dollars into-

   27. SSSean Strickland18:20

       Retain.

   28. JRJoe Rogan18:20

       I mean, there's so many different things that they, they pump money into. But they've never pumped any money into Baltimore. They never pumped any money into Detroit. Like-

   29. SSSean Strickland18:27

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan18:27

       ... try to figure out a way ... Like, if you can s- like, think about like what Halliburton did during the Iraq War. They got these no-bid contracts where Cheney was the fucking CEO of Halliburton. He becomes the Vice President of the United States, and then the company he worked for gets these no-bid contracts-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   I mean, if, if…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      it's very difficult to see a path outside of that. It's-

   2. SSSean Strickland30:02

      I mean, if, if I, you know, say I fucking had a kid when I was younger, like that would've fucked that kid up.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:06

      Mm-hmm.

   4. SSSean Strickland30:06

      That would've fucked that kid up. I mean, white trash, trailer park ... I mean, not wanted to beat him or put my dick in him, but like, I would've fucked that kid up, you know?

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:12

      Right.

   6. SSSean Strickland30:13

      Um, it's actually funny though. I always tell the story. My dad's dying of cancer, and he's doing like the ... He's doing his, like, forgiveness speech. And I'm like-

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:21

      Oh, boy.

   8. SSSean Strickland30:21

      ... "Ah, get the fuck, dude." I'll go, "I'll go see you." He's like, "Sean, you know, I was, I was really bad to you and your mom. But, uh, but, uh ..."But at least I never put my ... At least I never, at least I never molested you.

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:32

      Oh, boy.

   10. SSSean Strickland30:33

       (laughs) I was like, "Fuck yeah, dude."

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:34

       What a low bar. (laughs)

   12. SSSean Strickland30:35

       I was like, "Fuck how many-"

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:36

       Cheers.

   14. SSSean Strickland30:37

       Hey, you never fucked me-

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:38

       Give me one of those oxys.

   16. SSSean Strickland30:39

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:39

       I wanna fucking ride this out with you. (laughs)

   18. SSSean Strickland30:41

       Yeah, man. Fucking angry.

   19. JRJoe Rogan30:42

       What the fuck, man?

   20. SSSean Strickland30:44

       But I think also, too, that's why people like me, because most people are fucked up.

   21. JRJoe Rogan30:48

       Mm-hmm.

   22. SSSean Strickland30:48

       They see me and they're like, "Oh, yeah, man," like, "That was fucked up." I watched my mom get the shit kicked out of her, too, you know. Like I've dodged a beer bottle on Christmas morning. (laughs) You know?

   23. JRJoe Rogan30:56

       Awesome.

   24. SSSean Strickland30:57

       So I, I think that's why people like me, because a lot of people are fucked up.

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:01

       A lot of people are fucked up, but you've managed to go through being fucked up to becoming one of the best fighters in the world.

   26. SSSean Strickland31:07

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       That's the hard path.

   28. SSSean Strickland31:09

       Oh, man, I was obsessive. Like, like, I mean, when I was, uh ... So I didn't really, like, one, I was fucking angry, dude. Like, I mean, I wanted to fucking kill someone so bad when I was a kid. I'd walk around with a fucking knife just hoping I'd fucking just ... Like, fuck, I still wanna kill somebody. It just would make me feel good, you know. I just fucking just, oh, I fucking love it. But, so you had that kind of anger growing up, and I needed fucking s- ... That's why I was also white, white supremacists.

   29. JRJoe Rogan31:33

       Mm-hmm.

   30. SSSean Strickland31:33

       I mean, could you picture being like ... Can you picture, uh ... I don't even know what this is like. And no one even interjected in my life. Me being 12 years old, walking around doing the fucking Heil Hitler salute with a fucking swastika on my arm. At no point did anybody say like, "Hey, maybe we should help this fucking kid." You know? (laughs)
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SSSean Strickland45:00

      be in the UFC if he wanted to. Anybody could do it. You-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:03

      Yeah.

   3. SSSean Strickland45:03

      You let me restart my life and tell me to go be in the NFL, probably ain't gonna happen. Go be in the NBA, 100% not gonna happen. UFC is the common man's sport. Any- any person on this planet could wake up one day and be like, "I wanna be a UFC champion," and they could make it. Get, get it, get it done.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:18

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SSSean Strickland45:18

      Yeah. I mean, not that easy, but y- y- you know?

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Right. I know what you're saying. Yeah.

   7. SSSean Strickland45:23

      Yeah, man. UFC's fucking great, dude. It's the best, best sport in the world and anybody can do it, so...

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:28

      Well, it's, it's not for everybody, that's for sure. And for a guy to get as far as you've gotten, that's, it's the rarest of the rare.

   9. SSSean Strickland45:35

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:35

       I mean, just think about it. How many people are training? How many people have aspirations and then filter them all out to how many people get to headline, you know, a- a- a main event?

   11. SSSean Strickland45:44

       I- ideally, though, if I could, you know, if I could talk to a kid and they were to tell me they wanna be in the UFC, if I tell them, "Don't do it. Don't put your..."

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       Yeah, I would say that too.

   13. SSSean Strickland45:50

       It's so much... It's America. It's so e- so easy to make-

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:53

       Unless you're fucking completely, fully obsessed.

   15. SSSean Strickland45:56

       Mm-hmm.

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:56

       I mean, un- unless that's what you wanna do, that's the thing you think about all day long. 'Cause if you don't, there's someone out there that does.

   17. SSSean Strickland46:01

       And there's a lot of UFC fighters, you guys, that suck. Like, there's a lot of motherfuckers that suck. Like, I- I mean, I get so... Extreme is like, extreme is like open doors, anybody can come, guys are in camp. There's some guys that are badass, but there's some UFC fighters, I'm like, "Dude, you fucking suck. How the fuck did you get here?" (laughs) Like how the fuck did... What short notice fight did you get? Like, (laughs) you are a sacrificial lamb.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:24

       Oh, there's definitely a few of those.

   19. SSSean Strickland46:25

       Oh, there's a lot of those in the UFC. A lot of those.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:27

       That's a weird one, this, the- the short notice fight against a top contender. Like, you see some of those every now and then and you're like, "Jesus."

   21. SSSean Strickland46:34

       Generally, that's how you get in the UFC, though.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:36

       Yeah.

   23. SSSean Strickland46:36

       You generally get in the UFC by... I mean, I think I took a two-week notice, a week notice on my first UFC fight. And that's why, if you're not in the UFC, you gotta stay ready. You gotta build, make way. You gotta stay fucking ready. But yeah, man. Greatest, greatest fucking sport in the world, dude. Fucking love the UFC. Hopefully I can fight Izzy, the, China's little slut.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:54

       (laughs) What is-

   25. SSSean Strickland46:54

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:56

       What is, uh, the- the status? Like, who is E-... So, right now, Whittaker is, uh, fighting this weekend against, uh, Dricus du Plessis.

   27. SSSean Strickland47:04

       Yeah, yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:05

       And that will probably determine-

   29. SSSean Strickland47:07

       That will determine. But I mean, nobody want... I mean, fucking dude... How many times... Like, this'll be their third, fourth fight with Whittaker and Izzy.

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:12

       Yeah, but the last one was so close.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:01:38

   What was he sending…

   1. SSSean Strickland1:00:00

      And then he would like post shit, send me messages and I block him right off the bat. I'm like, "You're fucking nuts, dude. You're a fucking pill addict. I want nothing to fucking do with you." Right?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      What was he sending you messages about?

   3. SSSean Strickland1:00:09

      Just crazy mo- like he just like (sighs) he just like a liber- like he like- he's a libertarian dude, but like a lot of it just like, you know-Like, just fucking nuts, bro. Like, his gym closed down during COVID, nuts. But ... (sighs) And this is another thing I got shit on, and I was the only one that's like, "Fuck Stephan Bonnar, man. That guy was fucking nuts. He was a fucking drug addict. Like, I don't give a fuck about him. Like, I didn't go and fucking force the Oxys down his throat. I didn't fucking make him OD." So everybody got me shit on that, and they all posted about it. And I'm like, "Listen, I didn't like the guy and I blocked him, but where were you guys when his life was falling apart? Where were you guys when he was publicly saying, 'My gym is failing'? I- I can't, I can't, I can't keep the doors open. They're locking me out.' Where the fuck were you guys? You guys weren't fucking anywhere. You don't give a fuck about him. You never gave a fuck about him."

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

      And then when he dies, this is an opportunity-

   5. SSSean Strickland1:01:01

      And then, and-

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

      ... to say you miss him.

   7. SSSean Strickland1:01:02

      And I'm not saying ... I'm not gonna say names or anything, but I've had c- or f- ... Fuck, I can't remember who it was. But I've had conversations with people who ... They didn't joke about it, but it was like, "Yeah, that guy was fucking nuts," and yet they're posting something. It's just fake, dude. Like, just if you're gonna joke about his crazy ass dying and, like, him being a pill addict and you go and post about like, "Oh yeah, Stephan Bonnar, he was a great guy." Like, no, motherfucker, he was a fucking pill addict. You all knew. We all fucking knew. There were so many people involved in his life that could have stepped in and I don't think you should have. I've dealt with pill addicts my whole life. I think you should have thrown some Oxys and be like, "Huzzah, man. Enjoy."

Episode duration: 2:21:29