JRE MMA Show #18 with Pat Miletich

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Three, two, one. (slaps table)…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      Three, two, one. (slaps table) The great and powerful Pat Miletich.

   2. PMPat Miletich0:09

      (sighs) I don't know about that, but-

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:11

      You are. Listen, man, um, it's an honor to have you in here, honestly.

   4. PMPat Miletich0:13

      Thank you.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      All the bullshit aside.

   6. PMPat Miletich0:14

      I've... Hey, you know what? I've been watching your show for a long time, and you're a contrarian thinker. I love it. And you've, you've prompted a lot of people to think differently, right?

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      Uh, maybe. I mean, the, I think information prompts people to think differently, you know?

   8. PMPat Miletich0:27

      Well, when they get pounded with it enough and hear it enough-

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:30

      Yeah.

   10. PMPat Miletich0:30

       ... eventually it starts to sink in, right?

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       Yeah, I think so, man. And when you talk about, um, guys who have been around, like, you, you are one of the real pioneers of MMA. You know, it's one of the reasons why I really wanted to have you in here. I remember back when you were fighting. I remember back when you fought Matt Hume in, what was that, like... And, uh-

   12. PMPat Miletich0:47

       Extreme Struggle Care?

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       ... Extreme Battle, yeah. That was John Paretty's thing.

   14. PMPat Miletich0:50

       Yeah. Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       I mean, dude, you've been around. You've been around. You were there early days, bare knuckle-

   16. PMPat Miletich0:55

       Yeah, yeah. No, you know, and the thing is, I always tell people-

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       Did you fight Dan Severn?

   18. PMPat Miletich0:59

       Yeah, yeah. We fought to a draw.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       Who was 270 pounds at the time.

   20. PMPat Miletich1:03

       Yeah, and he was still obviously pretty tough back then, still pretty mobile. It was not a, not a fun fight, I can tell you, carrying his weight around for 30 minutes, but-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:10

       (laughs)

   22. PMPat Miletich1:11

       ... it was tough. But Matt Hume was the guy that made me realize that I wasn't a fighter yet, 'cause I was 15 and 0. I think I was ranked fourth in the world. I fought Matt, rag-dolled him for basically the whole first round, threw him around like a rag doll. But he was just biding his time and waiting, and he caught me with some knees and damaged my nose. And the ref or the... Yeah, the referee and the doctor stopped the fight, 'cause back then it was very controversial. They didn't want a guy with a crushed nose or whatever, and so they stopped the fight. But I realized at that point, he knew a lot more than I did.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:43

       Yeah, that was an interesting fight, because I totally disagreed with that stoppage and I was watching it. I was like, "This is crazy."

   24. PMPat Miletich1:48

       Right.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:48

       How can you stop a fight for a broken nose?

   26. PMPat Miletich1:50

       Well, and it was... I got headbutted. I used to spar with a lot of pro boxers, and I got headbutted by a pro boxer, and he separated the cartilage from the bone. So that gap is still there, so that's what they felt. My nose was bleeding a little bit, but-

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:02

       Mm.

   28. PMPat Miletich2:02

       So that's why, that's why they stopped it, so-

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:04

       Right, but broken noses are just normal.

   30. PMPat Miletich2:06

       It happens, right.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. PMPat Miletich15:00

      I swear to God his arm is broken." He's, "Please." And then I see the replay on the big screen-

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:05

      Yeah.

   3. PMPat Miletich15:05

      ... and I go, "All right, Herb, all right."

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      Well, I remember the crowd was booing and then we played the replay back and I'm like, "Watch it, watch it right here." Snap.

   5. PMPat Miletich15:12

      Crunch.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:12

      And you hear everybody go, "Oh."

   7. PMPat Miletich15:14

      Yeah. And then I told Tim, I go, "Wave to the crowd when we walk out of the cage with your broken arm."

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:18

      (laughs)

   9. PMPat Miletich15:18

      So Tim goes like this and waves.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:21

       Jesus Christ. Ah.

   11. PMPat Miletich15:22

       And then we got back, we got backstage and the doctor looked at it and, and I go, "How bad is it?" And he goes, "Oh, it fucking hurts. This, this hurts." Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:30

       Yeah. It was bad. That was, uh, they had plates in there?

   13. PMPat Miletich15:31

       So the doctor that did, the doctor that... Yeah, the doctor that did it was a good, good friend of mine, orthopedic guy who I trained for many years. He was a bull rider at one time and then became an orthopedic surgeon and then trained with me in kickboxing, right?

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:44

       Wow.

   15. PMPat Miletich15:44

       Tough guy. Tough, tough, tough dude from Texas.

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:46

       I would imagine.

   17. PMPat Miletich15:47

       And he goes, "I've never had to order plates for a tibia bone to replace, to, to put somebody's forearm bones back together." He goes, "They're as big as the normal human's tibia."

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:59

       Oh yeah. Tim's a giant.

   19. PMPat Miletich15:59

       Just, yeah. His-

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:00

       Yeah.

   21. PMPat Miletich16:00

       ... his bones were massive. He goes, "They don't even make... I had to use tibia plates."

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       Wow.

   23. PMPat Miletich16:05

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:05

       Did, did that heal 100%?

   25. PMPat Miletich16:07

       Yeah, yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       Which is a long time though, right?

   27. PMPat Miletich16:11

       Yeah, it is, yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:11

       Like, he, he really struggled with that.

   29. PMPat Miletich16:12

       Right.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:12

       That was... I remember him saying thank you to Herb Dean for saving his career.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. PMPat Miletich30:00

      Mm-hmm.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      Yeah.

   3. PMPat Miletich30:01

      Absolutely.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:02

      Yeah, Metzger was super legit. He's a smart guy too. You know, Metzger's an interesting fellow. When you hear him talk about fighting and talk about his career, he's very open and honest about it and-

   5. PMPat Miletich30:12

      And he's into the holistic health now.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:13

      Mm-hmm.

   7. PMPat Miletich30:14

      You know, he's, he's, he's pretty wise to that. And I tell you what, if you (laughs) if you talk to him long enough, he'll have you sold on some products. He will.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:23

      (laughs) Smart dude.

   9. PMPat Miletich30:23

      He'll have you sold. Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:24

       But, you know, he's a guy that, uh, he suffered through, uh, that Vioxx shit.

   11. PMPat Miletich30:28

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:28

       You know, that Vioxx stuff that people were taking for arthritis?

   13. PMPat Miletich30:30

       For heart attacks and all that.

   14. JRJoe Rogan30:31

       He had a stroke.

   15. PMPat Miletich30:32

       Right.

   16. JRJoe Rogan30:32

       He had a stroke through Vioxx.

   17. PMPat Miletich30:33

       Yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan30:34

       They pulled that shit off the market.

   19. PMPat Miletich30:35

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan30:35

       And when people were taking it, a lot of people were taking, getting strokes and I, I think someone commented-

   21. PMPat Miletich30:40

       Vioxx and Celebrex.

   22. JRJoe Rogan30:41

       Was Celebrex another one?

   23. PMPat Miletich30:42

       Celebrex was bad too, yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan30:44

       Yeah, there's a lot of weird drugs that people were taking for arthritis that... I guess it was like a blood thinner, right? Is that what the idea behind it?

   25. PMPat Miletich30:49

       Well, but a lot... Yeah, there was a lot of-

   26. JRJoe Rogan30:50

       Anti-inflammatory?

   27. PMPat Miletich30:50

       A lot of professional athletes-

   28. JRJoe Rogan30:52

       Mm-hmm.

   29. PMPat Miletich30:52

       ... who were suffering from inflammation and pain and getting beat up and stuff-

   30. JRJoe Rogan30:55

       Yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      you see, like, some of the shit that he would do, like some of his kettlebell workouts and, uh-

   2. PMPat Miletich45:04

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      ... uh, shield casts that he would do with club bells and, and steel plates and shit. He was all about movement.

   4. PMPat Miletich45:10

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      O-

   6. PMPat Miletich45:10

      Circular mo-

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      Yeah.

   8. PMPat Miletich45:11

      Circular motions, like.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:12

      Mm-hmm.

   10. PMPat Miletich45:13

       So, your gym, having all that true functional fit... Like, uh, to see Indian clubs in your gym, I went, "All right, he gets it."

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:20

       Yeah.

   12. PMPat Miletich45:20

       Like, he really gets it. Indian clubs. I collect all the old ones.

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:23

       Oh, really?

   14. PMPat Miletich45:24

       Old antique wood ones.

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:25

       Like iron sheath? An iron sheath, you see these as?

   16. PMPat Miletich45:26

       The huge wood ones, right?

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:27

       Yeah.

   18. PMPat Miletich45:27

       All that sort of stuff.

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:28

       Yeah.

   20. PMPat Miletich45:29

       So, a guy named Ed Thomas taught me about true functional fitness long before any of this CrossFit crap and all this stuff came out, right?

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:35

       Oh, wow.

   22. PMPat Miletich45:35

       So Ed Thomas, Dr. Ed Thomas... And I didn't know he was a doctor. He just showed up at my gym one day. He walks in, a little unassuming dude, and he goes, "Hey." He goes, "Pat," he goes, "I'm Ed Thomas." He goes, "Do you have time for me to teach you some stuff?" And I went, "Sure," you know, whatever. It was the middle of the day. Nothing was going on. So he brings in Indian clubs, kettlebells, old med- medicine balls, old leather stuff. And I'd, at the time, never seen any of this stuff. I didn't know anything about it. Well, he was raised in the Turner Halls in Davenport, Iowa, and that's where he learned functional fitness. And the Turner Halls were brought by the Germans here because the, the Germans used Turner Halls back in Germany to train a generation to become warriors to protect the nation. And that's where that mentality came from. So everything they did was cargo nets, pommel horses, Indian clubs, uh, heavy kettlebells, all kinds of crazy just functional fitness stuff.

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:23

       So they would climb cargo nets?

   24. PMPat Miletich46:25

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan46:25

       And s-

   26. PMPat Miletich46:25

       Serpentine inside of them.

   27. JRJoe Rogan46:27

       Mm-hmm.

   28. PMPat Miletich46:27

       Uh, they would swing the cargo nets and the kids would serpentine in and out of them as it was swinging.

   29. JRJoe Rogan46:31

       Oh, wow.

   30. PMPat Miletich46:31

       All kinds of crazy stuff, right? Um, definitely the rings. They were doing a lot of the ring stuff and power, you know, being able to do iron crosses.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:01:39

   Ah. …

   1. PMPat Miletich1:00:00

      I got back to the school and my scalp's all split open everywhere and my arms are beat to hell from blocking pool cues and I lost my gold necklace. So I had to go down there the next day-

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Ah.

   3. PMPat Miletich1:00:09

      ... to go back and get my friggin' necklace. It was a big rope chain necklace that my girlfriend at the time had bought for me.And I walked in and I go, "I lost my chain here last night." And the owner goes, "Yeah." He goes, "You put five people in the hospital last night." He goes, "Don't ever come back here again, man. Don't, don't come back. This is..." So that's just the way it was.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:28

      That was Iowa.

   5. PMPat Miletich1:00:29

      That was Iowa. That's what we did for fun.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:31

      Well, Iowa has such a reputation for tough guys when it comes to wrestling.

   7. PMPat Miletich1:00:36

      Yeah.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:36

      I mean, the Iowa wrestlers, there's, it's like, you know, like, there's, like, Thai kickboxers-

   9. PMPat Miletich1:00:42

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:43

       ... Iowa wrestlers.

   11. PMPat Miletich1:00:44

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:44

       It was always this thing. It was almost synonymous with Iowa.

   13. PMPat Miletich1:00:47

       When Gable was coaching, uh, the Iowa wrestling team beat up the football team and the basketball team on numerous occasions.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:53

       (laughs)

   15. PMPat Miletich1:00:53

       He'd have to go get those guys out of jail. They just beat up the whole team.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:00:56

       Well, I can only imagine. You know, if someone actually thought they were a tough guy-

   17. PMPat Miletich1:00:59

       Right.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       ... and they talked to those tough guys-

   19. PMPat Miletich1:01:01

       Right.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       ... it's like, "Well, we've got to show you something."

   21. PMPat Miletich1:01:02

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:03

       "Because you're going through this life with this delusional perspective, and, uh..."

   23. PMPat Miletich1:01:07

       Lou and Ed Banach and guys like that.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:09

       Ugh.

   25. PMPat Miletich1:01:09

       Just King Mueller, back in those days, some very, very scary wrestlers.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:13

       I don't think people truly understand the difference between them and regular human beings. I just don't, I don't think-

   27. PMPat Miletich1:01:18

       Right.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:18

       ... they've ever exper- I think you have to, like, w- w- just lock up with them to experience it.

   29. PMPat Miletich1:01:23

       The explosiveness, the tendon strength, the, just the power, the sheer just violence that those guys can bring in a short burst of, of energy. It's ... Until you get used to it, and you see it all the time in, in fighting, right?

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:35

       Mm-hmm.

Episode duration: 2:57:03