Brendan Schaub recently opened up about the infamous incident that led to Joe Rogan encouraging him to retire from MMA. The incident occurred during a live episode of his podcast, recorded at Rogan’s JRE studio.
Schaub recalled the event during his appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. He said that due to the UFC commentator’s attitude to the issue during the moment, his family was furious with him.
He said: “My family was really mad at Joe. I told Joe this, my dad was pi*sed, my brother was pi*sed after that, like it’s a little embarrassing. But my brother and my dad didn’t know before I even walked out for that last UFC fight…I looked at my team and went, ‘Last one.'”
Schaub said that despite not planning to compete again after losing to Travis Browne in a knockout at UFC 181, he became upset when Rogan urged him to call it quits. Even though he was defensive about the matter at the time, he said that he still intended to share the episode after it had been broadcast live in order to support others going through a similar circumstance.
Schaub stated: “The fighter in me when Joe brought that up…I was embarrassed and I was pretty emotional, but thank God he did that…There’s a lot of guys who feel the way I do. This might help somebody else and it’s also real.”
Schaub admitted he was caught off guard by Rogan’s intervention, and the emotional moment left him feeling both embarrassed and defensive. But now, he is appreciative of what Rogan had done and doesn’t have any grudges towards him in relation to the historic incident.
During the now-famous podcast episode, Joe Rogan didn’t hold back in analyzing Brendan Schaub’s knockout loss to Travis Browne at UFC 181. Rogan candidly expressed his belief that Schaub wasn’t fully committed to competing anymore and encouraged him to consider stepping away to avoid further damage.
Rogan addressed Schaub directly, saying: “I worry about your commitment to fighting…I think you have one foot out the door. You disagree? I think your’re looking at where the future is going to take you and that you can’t do this forever, you know? And I think that’s a very dangerous place to be in fighting…When does damage start to show up in your life?”