Joe Rogan Experience #2292 - Josh Waitzkin

(drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Whenever someone is a, like, an interesting person, and then I find out they do jujitsu too, "Oh, I could talk to that guy, for sure."

Yeah.

You know? (laughs)

(laughs) Jiu-jitsu-

You know, like, I get excited when interesting people do jujitsu, because I think, uh, for the outsider, to a lot of people that are, you know, they, they haven't been exposed to what it's like to train and what it's like to be around high level jujitsu people, they don't, uh, they don't know that vibe. They don't know what it's like. Like, they don't know the, um, the beauty of jujitsu. I feel like b- bea- jujitsu is beautiful for people who practice it, you know? Like, you see, like, Marcelo's a great example, your, your coach. You know, Marcelo is probably one of the most beautiful guys to watch, because he just takes advantage of these scrambles in this, like, really beautiful way, like fast and, and slippery. And when the opponents react, he reacts in the other way. It's all just technique and flow. It's like, "Ah!" Like, the first time I ever saw him, I saw him live in 2003 in Abu Dhabi, and, uh, it was when he fought Shaolin. That was the first time I'd ever seen him, uh, in the flesh. I didn't even-

And then choked him out in, like, eight seconds, 10 seconds.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

It was the most crazy scramble.

Incredible.

But no one even knew him. No one knew of him, other than... You know, he was o- obviously a r- I think he was a brown belt at the time. I don't even think he was a black belt. I think Marcelo might've been a brown belt.

I- i- it's interesting. I didn't... In 2003. Maybe.

So find that out. Was Marcelo a brown belt when he won Abu Dhabi in 2003? He may have... Eddie Bravo was a brown belt when he tapped out Royler.

He told me recently that right before that fight, his, um, like, his grips had locked up. So he ca- Went into that fight... It looks incredible, just that arm drag, take the back, choked him out in seconds.

His, like, hands?

Yeah, his, like, grips from the fight before were like...

Oh, wow.

Yeah. W- wh- When, when Eddie beat Royler, he was a brown belt?

Yep.

Wow.

Yeah, m- uh, Jean Jacques took his black belt-

Yeah.

... off of his own waist-

(laughs)

... and put it on Eddie.

Amazing, amazing.

Dude.

That's epic. So yeah, it's funny. Uh, my background... Uh, we have a lot of overlap in our early jujitsu education, 'cause my first teacher was John Machado.