In a recent Joe Rogan podcast, he claims “I was literally hypnotized watching Royce Gracie do what he did. It was the first UFC and nobody else was paying attention to it. I was like, oh I’ve got to do that. It was speaking to me like art was” He later went on to discuss his first interaction with a BJJ gym, which he drove 3 hours to train at, saying “I could smell all the sweat and humidity and nastiness. I was like oh god, it’s great. There were these guys who were clawed up, intimidating and dripping wet. I wanted to be like that. This wasn’t the pretty days with rashguards and designer gi’s. The gi’s were yellowed and messed up and there was chest hair in your mouth”