UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan warns Brendan Schaub that brain damage lies on horizon

Travis Browne and Brendan Schaub

UFC commentator Joe Rogan has serious concerns regarding Brendan Schaub’s fighting future. On Monday, he directly expressed those concerns to Schaub in a public forum.

Just days removed from a first-round TKO loss to Travis Browne at UFC 181, Schaub, Rogan and Bryan Callen conducted a podcast to discuss the outcome of the bout.

The conversation quickly took a turn into uncomfortable territory, as Rogan told Schaub, who is 2-2 in his past four fights, that he doesn’t believe he has the talent to be a championship-level fighter.

“As I’m watching that fight, there are a lot of things that concern me,” Rogan told Schaub. “You were lunging with your punches instead of getting there with your footwork. You were really reaching and loading up. You looked very stiff, you didn’t look fluid, and you just didn’t look good.

“You didn’t look like you were well-prepared. Your movement just didn’t look like an elite fighter’s movement. What you were doing was very stiff. It was very stiff and there was a lot of apprehension in your movement.”

Professional fighting can be a cruel and fickle career path. So much hinders on winning and losing that an athlete could be on top of the world one day, only to have everything crash down the next.

The most significant downfall of being a combat sports participant, and the subject Rogan admits worries him most about Schaub, is brain damage.

It undeniable brain damage is a very real consequence of combat sports, but the severity of those consequences typically differs by case. Schaub has been knocked out four times in the past five years, and that’s just in competition. It’s unknown how much added damage he’s taken in the training room.

At just 31, Schaub is a young fighter by heavyweight standards and still seemingly has plenty of time to evolve. However, Rogan outright stated he doesn’t believe Schaub can ever become a UFC champion. If that’s the case, he asked Schaub if he’d be satisfied with life as a mid-tier competitor who may suffer further head trauma.

“There’s a bridge between you and the very best guys in the world, and I don’t know if you can cross that bridge,” Rogan said. “That’s the reality of life. If you look at your performances inside the octagon – not what you think you’re capable of or you know you’re capable of at your best – if you have to judge it by just your performances inside the octagon. … You’ve had good fights, you’re a very good fighter. That’s not what the issue is.

“The issue is: Can you become a champion? If you can’t become a champion, are you comfortable with getting knocked out three or four more times over the next five or six years? That is a possibility. It might not happen. You might be OK, but it also might happen. It might happen two fights in a row.”

The harsh reality of sports is that no two athletes are created equal. Everyone has certain attributes or flaws that make them unique, and Schaub is no different, Rogan said.

When comparing Schaub’s game to the world’s top heavyweights in Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Fabricio Werdum, there’s a noticeable gap in talent.

Rogan doesn’t believe it’s within the realm of possibility for Schaub to close that gap. If that’s indeed the case, how much longer is he willing to participate in a profession where he can’t be the absolute best?

“You’re a sharp dude, and I know you know if you keep going, (brain damage) is coming, there’s no way around that,” Rogan said. “The reality of your skillset and where you’re at now, I don’t see you beating the elite guys. I don’t see you beating Cain Velasquez, I don’t see you beating Junior Dos Santos, I don’t see you beating Fabricio Werdum. You came into fighting fairly late in life, you’re a good athlete, you’re a strong guy, you’re a big guy and you can do lots of things because of that.

“You’re very dedicated and disciplined, but there’s a reality to fluidity of movement, of mechanical efficiency of movement that happens when you get a guy who’s trained his whole life at a certain aspect of MMA. There’s fluidity to their movement that you don’t really have. It’s not that you don’t try hard, it’s not that you’re not dedicated, it’s not that you’re not disciplined or intelligent, but there’s just s–t people can do that you can’t do.”

While Schaub mostly sat back and absorbed Rogan’s criticisms, there were points when he did fire back.

“Joe, I think it’s easy for you to sit there with whatever, $12 million in the bank and say, ‘Oh, you need to stop doing this,'” Schaub said. “It’s easier (to say that). When you’re set and you don’t come from that background and go home to your wife and kids and $6 million mansion and say, ‘Stop doing this and do podcasts for the next 40 years.'”

Schaub’s been a pro fighter since 2008, and in that time he’s registered victories over the likes of Matt Mitrione, Mirko Filipovic and Gabriel Gonzaga. Despite having lost his past two fights to Browne and Andrei Arlovski, “Big Brown” said he’s not ready to walk away from the sport just yet.

He still has aspirations for the future, and that includes at least a few more bouts and a potential venture down to the light heavyweight division.

“I’m 100 percent going to fight again,” Schaub said. “Two years, four more fights and maybe a cut down to 205. I walk around at 250 with like planning 250. Metamoris I went down to 225. I won’t make any decisions until January.”

Rogan’s comments may be harsh, but the reality is, very few fighters have someone in their life that would confront them in such a straightforward way.

Ultimately, Schaub is the one that must carry the baggage of his fighting career through the rest of his life. How heavily he decides to pack that baggage comes down to how many more blows he’s willing to take.

Rogan said he would prefer for Schaub to never compete again. If he does, though, the UFC commentator hopes Schaub considers how many times he can step in the octagon before suffering irreversible damage.

“This is hard for me to say, because I love you as a friend,” Rogan said. “This is just a reality. This sucks for you. It’s hard to hear. It sucks to say it. I don’t like it coming out of my mouth and the reason is because I love you as a human being.

“If 20 years from now you can’t fight, when can you stop? Can you stop in 10 years, five years, two years – it’s coming. The end is coming. It’s the reality of being a demolition derby car, and that’s what you are when you’re an MMA fighter.”

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