Before he was a UFC commentator or the most successful podcaster of all time, Joe Rogan used to host the popular reality show Fear Factor - and in a recently unearthed clip, he once got into a fight with a contestant on-screen.
For those too young to remember, Fear Factor saw a series of contestants from all over the US face their worst fears and embark on a series of extreme challenges for a chance to win a $50,000 prize.
The show was full of big personalities and larger-than-life characters - including future WWE superstar The Miz - and in one episode during the show’s 6th season, a contestant lost his temper and had a physical altercation with Joe.
During the episode, a quarreling husband and wife duo were having an intense argument, which prompted catcalls and jeers from other contestants, who wanted to see their competitors eliminated from the show.
Check out the full scene below:The wife took these comments poorly, and following an argument with her husband, marched up to one jeering contestant and punched him “as hard as she could”, which prompted an intervention from Rogan.
“What are you doing, you can't assault people. What he did is called strategy, he's yelling at you,” Rogan said. “You can't run up to him and hit him.
“Like if you and your husband hit each other, that's one thing, you don't run up and hit other contestants."
Needless to say, the husband didn’t take these remarks very well, and following Rogan’s comments, he stormed on over to the host and started yelling in his face.
This quickly escalated into a physical confrontation between the two, which saw the UFC commentator and three-time black belt grab the contestant by the neck and put him into a clinch.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Rogan later recalled the incident in an episode of his podcast years later, and said there was much more to the incident than meets the eye.
"The guy got in my face. There's a lot of it that wasn't on film, they didn't put it on TV," he said.
"But, I pushed him out of my face. He said 'Don't push me!'. I said, 'Or what, b*tch?!'. I [thought] this is just too tense. I'm just gonna grab this guy. I'm not getting punched in the face. I just grabbed him, I didn't hurt him.
"I thought he was gonna hit me! I didn't hurt him, I was thinking of choking him. But I was like, I better not choke him. Because if I choke him, you know, maybe they could sue me."
The incident recently resurfaced again when it was discovered by a TikToker who uploaded footage of the clip, prompting mirth from plenty of commentators who were amused by the contestant’s false bravado.
“I hope that dude knows how bad that would have gone if Joe wanted to go there,” one TikToker said in the replies. “Joe had him in an MT clench and could have wrecked him with ease.”
“Bro doesn’t know Joe has like 40 years of fighting experience,” commented another user, with another quipping that “Joe made it look like he was fighting a toddler.”
Another added: “This is a perfect example of why you never get involved with domestic disputes.”
But others were less impressed. “What a bunch of freaks. Joe Rogan included. This is all too strange.”
Another TikTok also uploaded the resurfaced footage, along with the caption: "I never knew Joe Rogan fought a contestant on Fear Factor."
Once again, many of the comments were supportive of Rogan, with one social media user saying that the husband was lucky there was "contestants, cameras and security guards" around at the time of the scuffle.