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Joe Rogan had his first gig inside the UFC commentary booth exactly nineteen years ago on this day.
A lifelong fight enthusiast, Rogan made his debut as a commentator at UFC 37.5, which was headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Chuck Liddell and Vitor Belfort.
Take a look at Joe Rogan's first day as a color commentator:
Before his time with the UFC, Joe Rogan also had a brief stint as host of the reality show 'Fear Factor'.
However, not one to cushion his words, Joe stated that Fear Factor 'sucks' when compared to the UFC.
Joe Rogan even claimed to be so invested in combat sports that he wouldn't be bothered if other sports like basketball were to be banned today. Extremely hyped on his first day, Joe Rogan told fellow commentator Jeff Osborne-
"I'm a huge fan of Ultimate Fighting, all mixed martial arts. Literally, I don't care about other sports. Like the Lakers won their third championship the other day, I couldn't care less. If they made basketball illegal it wouldn't even bother me."
Joe Rogan clearly loves the UFC
Although it was his first gig as a commentator, Joe Rogan made several UFC appearances prior to UFC 37.5. Rogan worked as an interviewer on multiple occasions, with his first appearance being at UFC 12.
Joe Rogan was evidently excited at being able to watch the event live and was extremely vocal about it.
According to Rogan, the magnitude of the event was even greater than Mike Tyson's knockout loss to Lennox Lewis. In his first event as a color commentator, Joe Rogan further said-
"This is a very very exciting fight, this to me is like Christmas, my birthday, happy new year, April fools, whatever. I can't wait for this fight, this fight is a thousand times more important to me than (Mike) Tyson and (Lennox) Lewis. Phenomenal fight, I can't even believe it's real. That it's gonna happen."
After the event, Joe Rogan briefly left the UFC to host 'Fear Factor', before returning at UFC 40.
