Joe Rogan Experience - Fight Companion - April 28, 2018
Brendan Schaub (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Brendan Schaub (guest), Narrator, Brendan Schaub (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Joe Rogan (host), Eddie Bravo (guest), Narrator, Joe Rogan (host), Brendan Schaub (guest), Brendan Schaub (guest), Brendan Schaub (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Joe Rogan (host), Brendan Schaub (guest), Joe Rogan (host), Brendan Schaub (guest), Brendan Schaub (guest), Brendan Schaub (guest), Narrator, Narrator, Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Brendan Schaub and Eddie Bravo, Joe Rogan Experience - Fight Companion - April 28, 2018 explores jRE Fight Companion: Fedor’s KO, Jiu-Jitsu Clinic, Conspiracy Clashes This Fight Companion episode covers a Bellator card headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Frank Mir, with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, and Brendan Schaub reacting live. The night turns into an extended celebration of high‑level jiu-jitsu as Dillon Danis, Neiman Gracie, Rafael Lovato Jr., and Emanuel Sanchez all win by slick submissions. Around the fights, they dive into MMA history, fighter matchmaking, performance-enhancing drugs, cults, Scientology, celebrity gossip, and a heated side debate on conspiracies like nuclear weapons and overpopulation. The mix is equal parts technical fight breakdown, nostalgia for Pride-era legends, and unfiltered digressions on pop culture and politics.
JRE Fight Companion: Fedor’s KO, Jiu-Jitsu Clinic, Conspiracy Clashes
This Fight Companion episode covers a Bellator card headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Frank Mir, with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, and Brendan Schaub reacting live. The night turns into an extended celebration of high‑level jiu-jitsu as Dillon Danis, Neiman Gracie, Rafael Lovato Jr., and Emanuel Sanchez all win by slick submissions. Around the fights, they dive into MMA history, fighter matchmaking, performance-enhancing drugs, cults, Scientology, celebrity gossip, and a heated side debate on conspiracies like nuclear weapons and overpopulation. The mix is equal parts technical fight breakdown, nostalgia for Pride-era legends, and unfiltered digressions on pop culture and politics.
Key Takeaways
Elite single-skill specialists can still dominate in modern MMA if they reach opponents’ weakness quickly.
Dillon Danis and Neiman Gracie show that world‑class grapplers with rudimentary striking can win decisively by forcing ground exchanges and attacking legs and arm‑triangles before strikers can exploit their stand‑up gaps.
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Guard pulling and leg locks are becoming more legitimate strategic options in MMA.
Rogan and Bravo praise Danis for adapting mid‑fight by pulling guard when his stand‑up failed, and they note the rise of heel hooks, toe holds, and leg entanglements as viable ‘Plan B/Plan C’ weapons, provided you’ve put in years of focused training.
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Matchmaking can (and should) be used to build specialized prospects safely.
The hosts defend Bellator giving Danis and others favorable first opponents, arguing that promoters should nurture high-upside talents with the right stylistic match‑ups instead of throwing them straight into elite competition.
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The heavyweight “GOAT” conversation is inseparable from era and drug-testing context.
They contrast Fedor’s Pride run—under lax or encouraged PED norms and rings—with Stipe Miocic’s UFC title defenses in the USADA era, suggesting Stipe or Cain Velasquez may be cleaner-era ‘GOATs’ while still respecting Fedor’s dominance among equally ‘enhanced’ peers.
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New stars are emerging at lightweight and featherweight with highly complete games.
Kevin Lee and Zabit Magomedsharipov are highlighted as future championship-level fighters, combining high-level wrestling or grappling with advanced striking and cardio, making them compelling opponents for Khabib and other top contenders.
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Media narratives and “based on a true story” films often distort key facts.
They criticize movies like Foxcatcher and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story for altering real fight outcomes or fabricating injuries/relationships, stressing that such changes erode trust in biographical storytelling.
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Conspiracy thinking thrives where technical knowledge is low and incentives are opaque.
The back‑and‑forth over nuclear weapons, overpopulation, and QAnon illustrates how skepticism can turn into blanket doubt when people don’t understand the underlying science or geopolitical interests, and how that frustrates others who rely on expert consensus.
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Notable Quotes
“If you’re high level at one aspect—wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or striking—you can suck at the other two. It doesn’t matter.”
— Joe Rogan
“If you’re going against a high-level leg locker, it’s gonna take you four years to catch him.”
— Eddie Bravo
“The argument for Stipe being the best heavyweight of all time is legit, ’cause he’s fought clean and defended the UFC title more than anyone.”
— Brendan Schaub
“‘Based on a true story’ means it’s a little bit true. You can’t add stuff like a gay relationship or a broken back that never happened.”
— Eddie Bravo
“Even if you didn’t vote for Trump, why would you want everything to go bad? If he succeeds, it means we succeed.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much longer can single-discipline specialists like Dillon Danis realistically succeed at the top levels of MMA as overall skill levels rise?
This Fight Companion episode covers a Bellator card headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. ...
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Is it ethically acceptable—or even smart—for promotions to “feed” favorable opponents to prospects to build their brands?
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How should fans reconcile Pride-era legends’ accomplishments with today’s stricter anti-doping standards when debating all‑time greats?
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Are leg locks in MMA still too risky against elite punchers, or has modern leg‑lock meta shifted the risk‑reward calculus?
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What responsibility do filmmakers have not to alter key factual outcomes in biopics about real fighters and historical figures?
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Transcript Preview
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
$15? (burps)
No. Three, two... Boom! And we're live, ladies and gentlemen. Live! Mauro Ranallo and Big John McCarthy.
(laughs)
Uh, Eddie Bravo rocking the old school Helio Gracie shirt. I love that shirt.
Hey, respect, man. Respect.
Respect. Deep respect. Brendan motherfucking schump. Oh, and I got a "Sugar" Sean O'Malley shirt. I might strip down later and put this motherfucker on. Is that the best shirt Reebok's ever made?
It might be. Might be one of the dopest shirts in history-
It's pretty great. It's pretty great.
...of Reebok.
Reebok's getting better, man. I'll give it to them.
I'm wearing a pair of Reeboks right... Oh, nope.
No.
I thought I was. I'm not.
I thought I was for a second, too. I did tell you. (laughs)
(laughs)
Well, I had them on earlier today.
(laughs)
I had a p- Reebok sent me a bunch of sneakers. But that's a dope shirt right there.
Yeah. You know me, I was super critical on them for a while. They're getting way better, man.
Yeah.
Way better.
This is good.
That, that... They... When they posted that I, I got my boy who works at Reebok, I sent him a screenshot and went, "Goddamn, you guys hit this one out of the park."
They're embracing it. They're embracing the fact that he's a stoner, like heavy duty.
Yeah, it's just a fun shirt, but it's so tight.
He talks about weed?
Oh, gang, like, go to his Instagram. Dude's getting high all day.
Didn't you see him on the last uh-
How does he fight?
Well, he just takes time off.
Okay.
I mean, you don't have to take much time off anymore.
Three weeks or something, right?
No.
Two weeks?
Two days.
Two days?
Two days. Yeah.
Really?
The new... Yeah, the new USADA rules. You just can't be high when you fight.
Depending where you fight though, right? 'Cause there, there's some issues coming up. I forget which state-
Oh, states.
... but they, they do it different.
Probably Texas, right?
The commissions are haters.
So, Dillon Danis. This is not his MMA debut, is it?
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, it is. Oh-
It is.
It is.
Against Kyle Walker. And Eddie, tell us about Dillon's jujitsu. He's pretty high level.
Yeah, he's one of the best around, for sure. He had a, an amazing match with Gordon Ryan at 2017 Abu Dhabi. I mean, the fight was really close. It could've went either way, and they gave it, the judge's decision gave it to Gordon. And Gordon went on, went on to win his division. So, he's, he's top of the food chain. And, you know, he was with Marcelo Garcia. He got his black belt from Marcelo Garcia.
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