Take A Few Minutes Out Of Your Day To Watch Joe Rogan Explaining UFC To Conan O'Brien In 1998

We don't have time machines (yet, I've got some ideas though if any deep-pocked investors would like to chat I hear the key is going really, really fast) but the best thing we've got is old talk show clips.

I love finding old Tonight Show episodes with Johnny Carson because it's so interesting to pick a random night in 1978 to hear what the monologue jokes are about and who the guests are.

So, there's a great clip going around of Joe Rogan explaining this new-fangled sport called mixed martial arts while promoting a UFC fight during an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and you owe it to yourself to watch it.

The year was 1998: Titanic was cleaning up at the box office, President Clinton was embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the New York Yankees were World Series Champs, and the handsome writer behind this here article was just three years old and probably crushing Cheerio's with his fingers while watching Bananas in Pyjamas.

At this point, Conan had been behind the Late Night desk and the show was really hitting its golden era with classic characters like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Pimpbot 5000, and, of course, the Masturbating Bear.

And on one night in 1998, they welcomed Rogan to the show, who at this point wasn't the biggest podcaster on the planet. Hell, he wasn't even "that guy from Fear Factor."

This was NewsRadio Rogan, and he was there to talk about that, and this goofy niche sporting event called the "Ultimate Fighting Championship."

Rogan talked about how he was interviewing the fighters, and after that, he had to explain to the Late Night audience what the sport even was.

He started off by addressing the giant, chain-link elephant in the middle of the room: the cage itself.

"The moment you say it's in a cage, you lose people's respect," Conan said.

"But why?" Rogan responded. "That way you can't get away. That's the whole purpose of it.

"They're great athletes. They're Olympic gold medalists and world Jiu-Jitsu champions and boxers. It's all just a combination. There's always been questions in the martial arts, like what if a Karate guy fought a Judo guy? And what the Ultimate Fighting Championship did is say 'Let's find out.' And they threw them all together. It's great."

It's so weird to see that because now, 26 years later, even someone who has never sat and watched a UFC event, at least knows what it entails.

The rest of the interview is a fun watch too — especially when they start dumping Steven Seagal movies — but a wild example of what life was like back then.