How Joe Rogan nearly wound up fighting Wesley Snipes in an MMA bout

Back in 2005, UFC commentator Joe Rogan nearly wound up fighting actor Wesley Snipes. Unfortunately for MMA fans – this never materialized and has resulted in lots of speculation as to how it would go.

Whilst a lot of people are also aware of Rogan’s martial arts back ground, less are knowledgeable about the fighting style of Wesley Snipes too. So, what happened exactly and how did it nearly go down?

Joe Rogan Vs. Wesley Snipes

These days, Joe Rogan is a huge celebrity and literally has the most popular podcast in the world. Back in 2005, he was known as a UFC commentator and host of Fear Factor. Aside from this, little else was publically known about him. Remember, back in 2005 social media was still in its infancy and personal information just wasn’t as easily available.

Anyway, during Wesley Snipes interview, Snipes claimed that he would be down to fighting celebrities in MMA – including Joe Rogan. After this, Rogan responded and claimed that he was down for a fight. Negotiations genuinely followed for a PPV MMA fight and eventually, Snipes backed out shortly before the fight.

The following year, Snipes would get investigated for tax fraud from IRS. So argue that this was his true financial motive for fighting. Regardless, as he now had bigger fish to fry, this may have been the reason for cancelling the fight. After this, he was eventually jailed for over two years.

Joe Rogan’s take on his Wesley Snipes beef

As Joe Rogan is quite vocal these days, he has spoken about his Wesley Snipes drama a few times on his podcast. He was quoted as saying “So I was like, ‘Ok, let’s see what happens.’ So then there was a bunch of changes to the contract and it was supposed to be 50/50, then it changed and I said okay to that too. I said whatever, let’s just do it. Let’s just do it. I was already a brown belt by then, and I just knew what happened when a brown belt fights a white belt. I’m gonna get a hold of him, and I’m gonna squeeze the f*** 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”

Since the incident, Snipes hasn’t really commented on the scenario and now lives quite a private life. As he’s now paid his IRS debt and is older, he now lives a quieter lifestyle and isn’t involved in the public eye as much. Having said this, there’s clearly no resentment between the two and it seemed to be a purely professional arrangement. In fact, Snipes was also in talks with the UFC to have a separate celebrity fight against Jean Claude Van Damme. Of course, the Joe Rogan fight seemed to genuinely gain traction at one point.

Who would win between Joe Rogan and Wesley Snipes?

These days, Joe Rogan is in his mid 50s, whilst Wesley Snipes is over 60 years old. For those wondering, this fight is never going to happen. However, the potential fight would have happened over 15 years ago. In other words, Rogan would have been in his early 40s, whilst Snipes would have been 45. Basically, it’s not like any of the fighters involved would have had an age advantage over one another.

In terms of Joe Rogan’s positives going into the fight – he was a Taekwondo black belt and regional champion at the time, as well as also being a BJJ brown belt. In other words, he was a well-rounded fighter who had seriously trained martial arts in both striking and grappling disciplines.

This differs from Wesley Snipes who was also a martial artist but in different styles. At the time, Snipes was a Shotokan Karate and Taekwondo black belt. In short, Snipes was clearly skilled at striking martial arts without knowing any grappling. Ironically, since then he has trained BJJ but this was years later.

Joe Rogan beats Wesley Snipes most of the time

Obviously, in a fight anything can happen. Even when a fighter has the odds completely in his favor, they can still lose by one punch. With this said, Snipes would certainly have a punchers chance and it may not have been as dominant for Rogan as his fans believe. Coupled with his striking background, you would be foolishly to completely rule out Snipes.

Still, the biggest chance of victory would still firmly be in the hands of Joe Rogan. By and large, it’s fair to assume that his striking would be superior to Snipes’s striking anyway. Although they’re both black belts, there’s a difference between a competitor (Joe Rogan) and more of a hobbyist (Snipes).

Aside from this, Joe Rogan is also a better grappler. As said in his future interviews, Rogan could have easily taken Snipes down and eventually submitted him. Being a brown belt at the time, this would have been relatively easy against an untrained grappler. So, the vast majority of the time Joe Rogan would win the fight against Wesley Snipes.

Conclusion

Although this potential fight would be huge today, it nearly took place in a different era when less eyes were on MMA or Joe Rogan for that matter. This means that it may have flown under the radar somewhat. Unfortunately, it never happened and since then, it’s become nothing more than a talking point about a certain part of history.

Based on the above, it’s fair to assume that Wesley Snipes did genuinely want to fight Joe Rogan at one point due to his financial issues. However, it also makes sense that after hearing that Joe Rogan wasn’t a regular celebrity and had years of combat experience which caused Snipes to eventually back down. Sadly though, we’ll never know the real truth.