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UFC commentator Joe Rogan says he almost fought Wesley Snipes in an MMA fight

Andreas Hale
UFC commentator Joe Rogan says that he nearly faced Wesley Snipes in an MMA fight over a decade ago. (Getty)
UFC commentator Joe Rogan says that he nearly faced Wesley Snipes in an MMA fight over a decade ago. (Getty)

Once upon a time, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan was close to securing a fight with actor Wesley Snipes.

No, this is not just a rumor without a foundation.

Rogan confirmed that what seemed to be a rumor was close to coming true on the Fight Companion podcast with Yves Edwards and Joe Schilling.

Back in 2005, when Snipes was in the midst of what Rogan called “desperate and in a bad situation with the IRS.” The idea for the “Blade” actor to compete was set to alleviate Snipes of his tax issues. All they had to do was find an opponent. Initially, the idea was floated for Snipes to face Jean-Claude Van Damme in a battle of action movie stars. However, according to Rogan, former UFC producer Campbell McLaren felt that would go nowhere.

“He’s like ‘Nobody’s gonna pay to see you and Jean-Claude Van Damme fight,” Rogan recalled. “You have to fight someone who was ‘current.’ So he said, ‘Would you fight Joe Rogan?’ And he said ‘Yup, let’s do it.’ So they came to me, and I went ‘How much money?’ And then they started talking, then I said ‘OK, let’s see what happens.’”

Rogan has always trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu and welcomed the fight with open arms. He began training for several months with Muay Thai champion Rob Kaman to shore up his standup with his brown belt in jiu-jitsu. However, the matchup ended up being squashed. But Rogan said that he didn’t believe that Snipes had much of a chance against him because, regardless of how much butt he kicked on the big screen, fighting for real would be a completely different story.

“He’s never wrestled, he never had a competitive martial arts match, whether it’s a kickboxing fight or karate fight,” Rogan said. “I was like ‘I’m gonna choke the [expletive] out of this guy. I’m gonna get a hold of him, and I’m gonna squeeze the [expletive] out of him, and they’re gonna give me a lot of money, and he’s probably not even gonna get hurt.’ That’s what I thought.”

Too bad we never had the opportunity to see if Rogan was right.

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