Joe Rogan Experience #2456 - Michael Jai White

Joe Rogan reconnects with Michael Jai White, whom he first interviewed 29 years ago and trained alongside in the early LA martial arts scene. The pair trade stories about Benny the Jet, the Gracies, and the dawn of the UFC, then dig into White's hard upbringing in Bridgeport, his career as an actor-director, and his philosophy that every style and every loss has something to teach you. A long second half becomes a love letter to Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, with White drawing on his deep research from preparing to play Tyson. They close on aging well, brain damage in fighters, and why men need rites of passage.

• White claims he ran out of his apartment and jumped off the balcony seconds BEFORE the 1994 Northridge earthquake hit, watching it happen from outside.
  00:03:41
• He was secretly teaching a karate class with ~200 students at age 15-16 because the community center thought he was an adult.
  00:08:23
• White became a father at 15 while living as an adult on his own since age 14.
  00:09:28
• Rogan reveals he trained twice a day for six months for a seriously-negotiated fight against Wesley Snipes that Snipes ultimately backed out of.
  00:57:55
• White says he turned down John Wick 4, on top of turning down Rogan's offer of the lead in Blood and Bone.
  01:23:50
• White first met Mike Tyson by phone while Tyson was in prison, set up by boxing manager Frankie Liles, as research to play him.
  02:14:55
• White argues Tyson visibly lost heart in the third round of the first Holyfield fight when the crowd chanted for Holyfield instead of him.
  02:18:34

• It had been 29 years since Rogan last interviewed White, on a week he guest-hosted the Bob Costas show.
  00:11:32
• White says he gassed out after two rounds sparring with Michael Bisping, who'd been drinking on a yacht all day before; White is a non-drinker.
  00:39:35
• Bisping had 11 UFC fights with a winning record while effectively fighting with one eye, memorizing the eye chart to pass exams.
  00:39:35
• White notes Blade is widely credited (even by Stan Lee) with saving Marvel before the modern superhero boom.
  01:03:06
• White has completed Kyokushin '30-man' kumite challenges (and a 20-man), describing the brutal mental wall fighters hit mid-way through.
  01:41:35
• White's instructors and training partners include Bill Wallace, Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez, Frankie Liles, Maurice Smith, and Tyler Gray (Delta Force).
  01:46:18
• Rogan highlights Dagestani Muay Thai prodigy Azamat (Azadullah Iman Gazalyv), ~22, as possibly the best technical striker alive in ONE FC.
  01:50:27
• White cites Tyson vs. Marvis Frazier as the scariest peak-Tyson performance ever.
  02:26:25
• Both argue Muhammad Ali's forced three-year layover for refusing Vietnam robbed him of his physical prime; he almost never threw body shots.
  02:31:04
• They note Larry Holmes was never forgiven by fans for beating up an aging Ali, costing him his rightful place among the greats.
  02:36:17

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