Joe Rogan Experience - Fight Companion - January 14, 2018
Joe Rogan (host), Eddie Bravo (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Bryan Callen (guest), Bryan Callen (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Bryan Callen (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Bryan Callen (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Bryan Callen (guest), Eddie Bravo (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Jimmy Smith (guest), Bryan Callen (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo, Joe Rogan Experience - Fight Companion - January 14, 2018 explores unfiltered fight talk, MMA evolution, and combat jiu-jitsu innovation This Fight Companion episode is a freewheeling, four-hour hangout where Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Jimmy Smith, and Brian Callan watch UFC St. Louis, drift into wild tangents, and break down technique and careers. They celebrate Jimmy Smith’s move from Bellator to the UFC booth, praise Darren Elkins’ comeback and Jeremy Stephens’ KO over Doo Ho Choi, and heavily preview Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman’s rise. Eddie dives deep into jiu-jitsu meta, body triangles, leg locks, and his Combat Jiu-Jitsu ruleset. Along the way they hit on fighter health, scoring reform, crazy old-school MMA stories, and the brutal realities of injuries, weight cuts, and careers in fighting.
Unfiltered fight talk, MMA evolution, and combat jiu-jitsu innovation
This Fight Companion episode is a freewheeling, four-hour hangout where Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Jimmy Smith, and Brian Callan watch UFC St. Louis, drift into wild tangents, and break down technique and careers. They celebrate Jimmy Smith’s move from Bellator to the UFC booth, praise Darren Elkins’ comeback and Jeremy Stephens’ KO over Doo Ho Choi, and heavily preview Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman’s rise. Eddie dives deep into jiu-jitsu meta, body triangles, leg locks, and his Combat Jiu-Jitsu ruleset. Along the way they hit on fighter health, scoring reform, crazy old-school MMA stories, and the brutal realities of injuries, weight cuts, and careers in fighting.
Key Takeaways
Jimmy Smith’s move to the UFC underscores how specialized and demanding MMA commentary really is.
They discuss the difference between play-by-play and color, the need to deeply know the sport and genuinely care, and how hard post-fight interviews and dead-air “fill” segments can be, even for veterans.
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Darren Elkins and Jeremy Stephens embody the modern ‘tough guy isn’t enough’ era of MMA.
Both win through grit plus refined skills—Elkins surviving a brutal first round to choke Michael Johnson, and Stephens patiently walking down and finishing Choi—illustrating that durability must be paired with strategy and adaptation.
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Francis Ngannou vs. Stipe Miocic was poised as the most consequential heavyweight title fight in UFC history.
They frame Stipe as chasing a record third defense while Ngannou is the once-in-a-generation physical outlier with rudimentary but terrifyingly effective tools, making the bout a crossroads of dominance vs. ...
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Eddie Bravo’s evolving jiu-jitsu philosophy shows how meta-games shift over time.
He describes how 10th Planet went from obsessing over body triangles and neck cranks (Dsevs) to prioritizing classic rear naked chokes, then back to deeper body-triangle study because of EBI overtime and Combat Jiu-Jitsu realities.
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Leg locks are far more dangerous—and far more sophisticated—than early MMA made them look.
They recall old fights where leg-lockers got pounded out and contrast that with today’s Danaher Death Squad era, where leg lock entries are faster, tighter, and positionally safer, changing how viable they are at high levels.
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Scoring and weight-cutting remain two of MMA’s most broken systems.
Rogan argues for replacing boxing’s 10‑point must with a more granular system and adding more judges, while also praising commissions like California for tracking fight-night weight and nudging chronic cutters up a division.
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Fighter health is fragile, and lifestyle choices matter as much as training.
They reflect on Matt Hughes’ recovery, CTE worries, gruesome injuries, and how quitting alcohol, focusing on diet, neck strength (Iron Neck), and sleep can dramatically affect longevity in such a punishing sport.
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Notable Quotes
““You only have so many five‑round fights in your body.””
— Jimmy Smith
““It’s not enough to be a tough guy. Welcome to the club.””
— Joe Rogan
““If I don’t win, I don’t eat, man—that motivation is the most powerful thing in the world when it comes to fighting.””
— Jimmy Smith (on Ngannou’s background)
““Have faith in your triangle. Too many people bail out before it works.””
— Eddie Bravo
““You’re not the show. You’re just trying to extract information out of this person.””
— Jimmy Smith (on post-fight interviews)
Questions Answered in This Episode
How might MMA look if Rogan’s proposed 100-point scoring system and expanded judging panel were adopted worldwide?
This Fight Companion episode is a freewheeling, four-hour hangout where Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, Jimmy Smith, and Brian Callan watch UFC St. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What technical and psychological adjustments differentiate a fighter like Jeremy Stephens now from earlier, more brawling versions of himself?
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How does Combat Jiu-Jitsu change which positions and techniques are ‘good’ compared to pure grappling or full MMA?
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In what concrete ways would stricter weight-cutting rules (like California’s fight-night weight checks) alter the rankings and matchmaking at 135–170 lbs?
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What can current and aspiring commentators learn from Jimmy Smith and Joe Rogan about preparing (or deliberately not over-preparing) for live broadcasts?
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Transcript Preview
We're f- we're live, guys.
Oh, is it live?
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh ƒ-
Boom. And we're live, ladies and gentlemen.
He wanted a picture quick.
We're here with the great and powerful-
Yeah.
... Jimmy Smith. Welcome to the UFC, Jimmy Smith.
Thank you so much.
Official.
Great to be here, officially.
Official. We, we wanted to talk about it last time-
(laughs)
... when you were on the podcast, but we, we had to dance around it. (laughs)
You and ... it's ... so many people-
(laughs)
... wrote me were like, "Joe really ... " I go, "Hey, man. Joe's a pro, and he, uh ... " You hinted well.
We had to d-
We danced around it-
We had to dance.
... quite a bit.
Nobody, nobody totally knew. And, of course, the great and powerful Eddie Bravo.
Yo, yo, yo.
Brian Callens on the way, but he's bringing wine and cheese. He insists on wine and cheese. He thinks he's at some fucking, fucking cocktail party where they're gonna compare scripts. That's Brian. He's gotta have his wine and cheese. Uh, Duho Cioi versus, uh, Jeremy Stephens is the main event. If you've never heard of one of these podcasts before, this is a fight companion podcast, which means we're gonna watch the fights. Most likely we'll talk about the fights, but we might not. We could talk about whatever the fuck. Like, Eddie and I, we've gone through entire podcasts we never talked about the fight until, like-
(laughs)
... the last round of the main event. But Missouri, Missouri Division of Prof ... Oh, they're in Missouri. Is this St. Louis? That's what it is, right?
Yeah, th- and they haven't adopted the ABC rules. That's important.
Hmm.
For the judging at least, for sure.
They haven't, they haven't adopted those in Nevada, which is real weird, man.
It's crazy.
Look how good Michael Johnson looks at 45. Eddie was saying that it's racist to say that, but I don't think it is. Look how shredded he is.
Fantastic.
Yeah, it's a good weight class for him.
Yeah.
I think, uh, you know, just those ... Khabib Nurmagomedov's those giant 55s that could just grapple fuck you and beat your brains in. He had enough of that after that fight.
Monstrous. Yeah.
He's like, "That's, that's about enough of this weight class."
When people remember how much the other guy talked-
Yeah.
... to Dana White while he was beating my ass, that's, that's bad.
Whew. Yeah.
That's bad. And he's a great fighter. And that's what's-
Yeah.
... so funny about it is.
Well, this was supposed-
That's how good he can be.
... to be the main event on the prelims, but Uriah Hall and Vitor Belfort fell out, really unfortunately, which is a fucking bummer. Apparently Uriah Hall was, like, on death's door trying to make weight. But he had, like, gotten sick, I'd heard, during training. He was having some real issues. He said his body shut down about three weeks out. A lot of people out here dealing with that fucking flu.
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