Joe Rogan praises striking skills of actor Jason Statham

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about a potential UFC fight between actor Tom Cruise and pop star Justin Bieber. From the sounds of it, UFC commentator Joe Rogan would prefer to see actor Jason Statham test his mettle in the cage than Cruise or Bieber.

Rogan got talking about Statham on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Statham made his way into MMA headlines this week as one of several celebrities to attempt the Bottle Cap Challenge popularized by UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. He did a pretty good job of it, and Rogan believes that fact can probably be attributed to the actor’s “real” striking skills.

“He’s a real karate guy,” Joe Rogan said of Statham. “Jason Statham has real striking skills.

“You can tell even just by the way he’s standing here,” Rogan continued as he watched Statham attempt the Bottle Cap Challenge. “Even the way he’s moving, this guy’s got real skill. Look at that. Kapow.”

Joe Rogan continued, discussing Statham’s martial arts background.

“He achieved a very high level of skill in karate. I don’t know what it was, but from people that I know that have done martial arts with him and trained with him, they said ‘that dude’s a bad motherf**ker, like a legit bad ass, like he really knows martial arts.’ I believe it. You see him in Snatch, one of those movies? Yeah, he’d f**k people up.”

Are you with Joe Rogan on this one? Could Jason Statham have had a successful combat sports career had he not chosen acting?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/2/2019.