JRE MMA Show #91 with Radio Rahim

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Doo, doo, doo. Yeah,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      Doo, doo, doo. Yeah, that is a guy named Ross Baines, he painted that. He's also painted this, uh, there's a picture in the green room with me and Daniel Cormier, and there's, uh, another one. The only thing, he sent me the one of Masvidal. This, he did a, an amazing one of Jorge Masvidal when he landed this knee on Ben Askren. He's a great artist. But that's Richard Pryor, he, he painted that for me.

   2. RRRadio Rahim0:21

      Well, clearly, m- my screensaver used to be a collection of mugshots, like-

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:26

      Really?

   4. RRRadio Rahim0:26

      ... Jim Morrison-

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:28

      I have Morrison out there.

   6. RRRadio Rahim0:29

      ... uh, Frank Sinatra. I saw.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:30

      Yeah, I have Frank Sinatra in the green room.

   8. RRRadio Rahim0:30

      So, but, okay, so then the thing is, I'm not a criminal, right?

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:33

      Me neither.

   10. RRRadio Rahim0:33

       I don't aspire (laughs) to be a criminal. (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       I don't either.

   12. RRRadio Rahim0:35

       But one of these, like, these mugshots are so iconic-

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:38

       Yeah.

   14. RRRadio Rahim0:39

       ... what does it mean to you to see, like, your heroes, e- essentially charged with crimes in maybe w- one of the worst nights of their life?

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:47

       Well, it didn't start off that way. This is what happened. I was in Hawaii, and they ... I'm a giant Jimi Hendrix fan. That's why I named the podcast Joe Rogan Experience.

   16. RRRadio Rahim0:58

       Ah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       I ripped off The Jimi Hendrix Experience. And I was in Hawaii, and, um, I went into this art gallery, and they had all this, uh, rock and roll art. And they had this really dope, uh, collaboration of Hendrix, his mugshot. It was like six, nine. Nine images? Nine square images of Hendrix's mugshot. I go, that looks cool as fuck, and so I bought it. And I also bought, uh, the Rosa Parks one, and I also bought the Elvis one. They had three different, uh, collab- like, just nine squares on one piece of artwork.

   18. RRRadio Rahim1:32

       Right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:33

       Of ... And I thought it looked cool, so I said, "Oh, that'll be a good backdrop for the podcast." So the old podcast studio, I had those behind me. And then I started picking up other ones, like I got Janis Joplin in the bathroom, I got Johnny Cash-

   20. RRRadio Rahim1:45

       (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:45

       ... I got Jim- James Brown, I got Pryor on the wall here. I got, uh, Jim Morrison, I got Steven Tyler on the wall over there. I just started collecting 'em, and there's, there's no real rhyme or reason to it. I just ... I got Lenny Bruce, I got everybody ... But I, but I just found mugshots and I just started collecting 'em.

   22. RRRadio Rahim2:02

       I had, like I said, my screensaver was that for, like, a year.

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:05

       Yeah.

   24. RRRadio Rahim2:05

       And I even had Sinatra in my room, big, you know-

   25. JRJoe Rogan2:09

       Yeah, yeah.

   26. RRRadio Rahim2:09

       ... a, a big one on the wall and whatnot, and I'm like, "W- you know, what is this shit about?"

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:12

       (laughs)

   28. RRRadio Rahim2:14

       (laughs) But it occurred to me, like, everybody that became an icon and became legend, like, you have to break the rules. There's nobody-

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:20

       Yes.

   30. RRRadio Rahim2:20

       ... who just, like, followed every rule and that's what they're famous for. Like, hey-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   You know what I'm…

   1. RRRadio Rahim15:00

      I'm so oblivious and I, uh, even looking back I'm like, "Man, how did you miss that?" I d- I swear to God I didn't know what the fuck was the problem. He starts saying, shouting, "Your people," and I'm like, "Well, I, wha-" it took me, him, he, he couldn't, h- he needed to keep saying it 'cause I didn't know why he was saying that. "Yeah, my people too, my people too," oh. There's a moment I'm like, "Oh, uh-oh." (laughs) Oh, no! (laughs) I thought he was shouting at them! Oh my goodness. He was shouting at me! Oh, no! (laughs) Ah, uh, you know, "Our people been fighting for 400 years-" Ugh. "... to this day, to this day." And I, uh, so what I wanted, what I wanted, what I thought was happening was that, okay, this moment now has become about him a- like, attacking me because he thinks I'm attacking him. He thinks because I do know what he's talking about, he knows we've spoken about it with- numerous times, he thinks I'm pretending... Oh. ... not to know, like some, you know, air quotes, Uncle Tom or what, you know, the numerous names I've been called on the internet since- Mm-hmm. ... as though I'm trying to pretend like, "Oh, I don't, what, 400 years? What does, what does that mean?" (laughs) You know what I mean? (laughs) I'm like, "Uh, okay, okay, okay, fine." So... (laughs) So when he's screaming at you- Mm-hmm. ... what is going through your mind when he's hitting you with... Is it "to this day" or "till this day?" Okay. (laughs) 'Cause there is a debate on that. First of all- Let's, let's see, let's play it. All right, here we go, here we go. Explain what you mean by that.

   2. DWDeontay Wilder16:40

      You know what I'm talking about. Y'all all know what I'm talking about, man. Don't sit up here and try to bait and not know what I'm talking about. Y'all know what the fuck I talk about when I say these things, your people too!

   3. RRRadio Rahim16:51

      Explain it, I, uh, not everybody knows what you're talking about.

   4. DWDeontay Wilder16:54

      I don't gotta explain what's understood, Radio Raheem! I don't have to explain what's understood, man. You know what I mean by that. You know what I said by that, I ain't gotta go farther. And if nobody, if anybody don't understand that, then God be with them, go look up the history. Go look up the history. Shit, ain't, don't everybody believe in Google? Go Google that shit and see what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, man. You know what, I dare you to sit up there and say it's, explain, you know what I'm talking about, man. His fighting people. You know we've been fighting 400 and still fighting to this day. To this day!

   5. RRRadio Rahim17:27

      (laughs)

   6. DWDeontay Wilder17:28

      To this day! You just sit here, you don't know what I'm talking about? Man, I'm outta here, bro. Let's go.

   7. RRRadio Rahim17:38

      Come on, let's go.

   8. DWDeontay Wilder17:39

      Let's go, man.

   9. RRRadio Rahim17:43

      Fuck. Yeah. Look at you. Okay, see, see, uh, you don't have to keep playing it, but just so you know, there's more to this video. In fact, the last guy says, "Oh, we, we know, I, I, uh, we know what he's talking about." That's what I just said at the end, but that clip everyone in the world has seen- Right. ... fits very neatly on Instagram- Of course. ... in a minute. Oh, no. Right? (laughs) So you miss the beginning and the end- (gasps) ... but the drama- Welcome to 2020 (laughs) or '19 or- (laughs) Yes! Welcome to the new age- Uh- ... of clips and things being taken outta context. So listen, this is not the first time I've had an interview that has, you know, uh, gotten major attention and not the first time a fighter's been pissed off at me. I knew that this was going to be a big thing, like, I knew people were gonna talk about it. Bro, I had no fucking concept...... of what was about to happen to my night. Like, I'm like basically when you're a reporter like this, you're like, "Okay, well, that was dramatic. We got a hot one. That one might get me a, you know, few 100,000 if not 1,000,000 views maybe." Like this is-

   10. JRJoe Rogan18:47

       (exhales) .

   11. RRRadio Rahim18:47

       Yeah, we got the, we got the champ. But also I'm thinking, you know, it's something of a success, like, okay, we got him to express at least in his, m- in that moment, something that we don't usually see. It's fight week.

   12. JRJoe Rogan18:58

       Right.

   13. RRRadio Rahim18:58

       We talked to this guy a million times. Everyone's had their interviews, he's been on every show and that was like the realest moment in the whole build-up. So for me, that in and of itself is something of a victory. Like you've, you've created a moment here where you got to see inside the champ's heart. You got to see like his passion. When I get home though, I gotta take a nap, like it's a been a long day, it's good. So as (laughs) as these stories tend to go, I'm woken up by chimes on my phone. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.

   14. JRJoe Rogan19:26

       Oh-ho-ho.

   15. RRRadio Rahim19:26

       What the fuck is going on? What's going on?

   16. JRJoe Rogan19:28

       (sighs) .

   17. RRRadio Rahim19:28

       In the interim, he's posted on Instagram just a minute of what is really like a two-and-a-half minute interview-

   18. JRJoe Rogan19:35

       Man.

   19. RRRadio Rahim19:35

       ... where it looks so bad.

   20. JRJoe Rogan19:38

       (laughs)

   21. RRRadio Rahim19:38

       And then he's written like a paragraph essentially about having to like, you know, teach people like basically not to be Uncle Toms, and how you gotta like straighten it out, and like there's a whole-

   22. JRJoe Rogan19:50

       (groans)

   23. RRRadio Rahim19:51

       ... like civil rights diatribe.

   24. JRJoe Rogan19:53

       (inhales deeply)

   25. RRRadio Rahim19:53

       And I'm the pin cushion, right?

   26. JRJoe Rogan19:55

       Oh my God.

   27. RRRadio Rahim19:55

       Like I'm-

   28. JRJoe Rogan19:56

       (laughs)

   29. RRRadio Rahim19:57

       (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan19:57

       (laughs)
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Right. …

   1. RRRadio Rahim30:00

      about my perspective on anything. I'm entirely showing up at every press conference, every fight, every weigh-in, every media workout, trying to get something out of the fighter to c- be consumed by the audience in a way that maybe they hadn't seen it before. Not just for the audience's sake, but I want the fighter to get in touch with something. Like, there's so many of these platitude questions and the same old shit and nobody's really, like, digging deep. These aren't one-dimensional characters. These aren't actual bulls. These aren't just gladiators. They're fathers. They're sons. They are like, they have civil rights issues. They have cultural things they're bringing to this thing. They have all, like, depression. We know all the things that fighters go through-

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:40

      Right.

   3. RRRadio Rahim30:41

      ... but they only wanna show you one side.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:42

      (clears throat)

   5. RRRadio Rahim30:42

      '... because they don't wanna show any vulnerability. And their fans aren't interested in, like, anything other than who's up and who's down, if that's all you're feeding them.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:49

      Yeah.

   7. RRRadio Rahim30:50

      So I try to get out of the way. I don't wanna get in front of the work. So when people see me in this line, a lot of people are just like, "Oh, this guy must be a fucking Uncle Tom then."

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:59

      (laughs)

   9. RRRadio Rahim30:59

      "If Wilder, Rihanna, and Snoop Dogg think so-"

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:02

       Ugh.

   11. RRRadio Rahim31:02

       "... clearly that's who this guy is."

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:05

       Have you talked to Snoop since?

   13. RRRadio Rahim31:06

       No, (laughs) I didn't talk to Snoop then. He just, like-

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:09

       (laughs)

   15. RRRadio Rahim31:09

       He just put it on Instagram. It's just, that's what I'm saying. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:11

       Oh, no.

   17. RRRadio Rahim31:12

       (laughs) Uh, but I have talked to Wilder many times since then. And to this guy's credit, never, even, even the, even the 20 minutes after, you're right, we did know each other, we do have a history. And he has now, knowing the moment that he created and knowing what he did to me in that moment-

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:31

       (laughs)

   19. RRRadio Rahim31:31

       ... has always been especially gracious. He's always been especially helpful. I can always get access to him. We have a bond now. Like, we share this thing-

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:40

       (laughs)

   21. RRRadio Rahim31:40

       ... that's inextricable, no matter what happens, (laughs) you know what I mean?

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:43

       Oh, my goodness.

   23. RRRadio Rahim31:44

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:44

       That's amazing.

   25. RRRadio Rahim31:46

       So, uh, yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:47

       It's such ... I don't think there's another boxing interview like that, ever. Ever.

   27. RRRadio Rahim31:52

       I, I can't think of one.

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:52

       There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. There's one where, like, remember when Larry Merchant was talking to Floyd Mayweather? He was like-

   29. RRRadio Rahim31:57

       Yeah. (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:57

       ... "You were 20 years younger ... Or if I was 20 years younger, I'd kick your ass."
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (laughs) …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      shit to them. I would-"

   2. RRRadio Rahim45:01

      (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:01

      "... I mean, I would've, I would've been, I was a fucked up kid."

   4. RRRadio Rahim45:03

      And they'd be digging those tweets up now-

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:05

      Oh, my goodness.

   6. RRRadio Rahim45:05

      ... and, like, canceling you.

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      Yes.

   8. RRRadio Rahim45:06

      Today. (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:07

      Well, they're doing that to kids now that get gigs and then they're finding their tweets when they were 17 and 18 years old.

   10. RRRadio Rahim45:12

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:12

       And now they're 24.

   12. RRRadio Rahim45:14

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:14

       Like, hey, that's a different fucking human being, man. Like, we need a path to redemption for people. And Twitter and Facebook and all these con- these, these comments that are permanently on the record, they make it really difficult for kids. I would not wanna be in high school today with a Twitter account saying the dumbest fucking shit in the world and then having that come back to haunt me when I want a job someday.

   14. RRRadio Rahim45:36

       Right, you don't know what the world's gonna be like-

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:38

       Right.

   16. RRRadio Rahim45:38

       ... in 15 years.

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:39

       No one knew.

   18. RRRadio Rahim45:40

       And hopefully you're not the same as you were 15 years ago. If anything-

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:43

       Of course.

   20. RRRadio Rahim45:43

       ... let's commend the person that doesn't look-

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:45

       Yes.

   22. RRRadio Rahim45:45

       ... anything like they looked when they were 15 today.

   23. JRJoe Rogan45:48

       But we don't want that. They, nobody wants that. You know, there's a thing with comedy, right? Where you have to leave your town 'cause they won't appreciate you. They only-

   24. RRRadio Rahim45:57

       (clears throat)

   25. JRJoe Rogan45:57

       ... they remember you when you sucked.

   26. RRRadio Rahim45:59

       (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       Like, when I lived in Boston when I started out as an open mic, I was fucking terrible. Everybody's terrible when they start. I was terrible. And so they thought I was terrible. And then I le- I had to leave. I had to leave, even though I'd gotten better, they still thought I was terrible. I had to leave and I had to get TV shows and then come back. And then they're like, "Oh yeah, you got better."

   28. RRRadio Rahim46:16

       (laughs) He, he's okay.

   29. JRJoe Rogan46:17

       Yeah.

   30. RRRadio Rahim46:18

       (laughs)
5. 1:00:00 – 1:11:47

   Wow. …

   1. RRRadio Rahim1:00:00

      that. That wasn't a thing before I started doing it. I'm the one who created this, like, medium by which you now receive boxing news.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:10

      Wow.

   3. RRRadio Rahim1:00:12

      So, um, my entire career and trajectory in life was changed at a boxing gym and never to look back. And-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:22

      Were you a fighter at one point in time?

   5. RRRadio Rahim1:00:24

      Never.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:25

      Never?

   7. RRRadio Rahim1:00:25

      Never. Always ti-

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:25

      You just used to train?

   9. RRRadio Rahim1:00:26

      Always trained since, since fifth grade, always training. It's taken incredibly seriously. I've heard you talk about this too, and it's... It couldn't be more true. This was a way for me to release, like, all of those young man angst.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:40

       Mm-hmm.

   11. RRRadio Rahim1:00:40

       All that frustration. It's really my therapy. I could barely afford gym dues, you know I can't afford therapy.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:45

       Right. (laughs)

   13. RRRadio Rahim1:00:47

       (laughs) Boxing was that. It was like-

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:48

       Right.

   15. RRRadio Rahim1:00:49

       ... an integral part of my life. I spent hours in the gym to where I had to figure out a way to make some money there, so I could continue to eat and pay for it.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:00:56

       (laughs)

   17. RRRadio Rahim1:00:56

       And that was my way of doing it.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:00:58

       Ah.

   19. RRRadio Rahim1:00:58

       Um, and so be- interviewing fighters is now, like, my claim to fame, because everybody thinks they're reinventing the wheel now. You can't shoot anybody sparring or anything like that. So that show had to go away. But the way that I relate to and understand fighters and what it is like that's inside them, that's, that they're experiencing, that's driving them, I think is unique, because although I would never ever classify myself as a fighter, that's such a, uh, a unique and, and cherished like banner that you can really hold if that's really what you do, I'm a lawyer too. You know what I mean? Like I've, I... In my own way, I forged a career. I created something that didn't exist and I had to fight every step along the way to make it a thing.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:43

       So d- is this something while you were doing it, you were realizing like, "I'm making a career out of talking about boxing"? Were you doing that? Or were you thinking, "Well, I'm doing this for now, and I'm gonna do something else"?

   21. RRRadio Rahim1:01:55

       ... I, I kept doing what was working.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:58

       Oh.

   23. RRRadio Rahim1:01:59

       You know what I mean? And I, at- at times I thought about doing something else, but never did I spend as much time thinking about or applying myself to anything else.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:10

       Mm.

   25. RRRadio Rahim1:02:11

       So yeah, other things would come up, but every, but it, it all would bring, it would always come back to this. I would always go back to the gym.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:02:17

       'Cause Dave is a crazy boxing fan too, and I remember Dave talked to me at one point in time about the three of us doing something. This is a while back, right?

   27. RRRadio Rahim1:02:25

       Strap Season. Dave and I-

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:27

       (laughs)

   29. RRRadio Rahim1:02:28

       ... have a show (laughs) called Strap Season. And the best way I could describe it is it's like a, the Anthony Bourdain of boxing, if you will. As I've said, I go all over the world covering fights.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:42

       Mm-hmm.

Episode duration: 2:22:51