Celebrity boxing did monster rating numbers a few years ago. It now appears a proposed Joe Rogan vs Wesley Snipes fight could do the same.
There was buzz of this rumor on several forums today and MMAWeekly.com has had this confirmed in the past hour. MMAWeekly Radio Host Frank Trigg talked briefly with Joe Rogan this afternoon to see if there was any truth to the rumor.
"It\'s 100% true..." Rogan told Trigg via the telephone. "I want the fight and now it\'s up to Wesley Snipes to accept." Snipes is a black belt in tae kwon doe and has trained in martial arts for years studying Karate, Kung Fu and Capoeira.
Rogan was a four-time state Tae kwon do champion before pursuing a career in show business. Rogan earned a black belt at 15 after just two years of training. At 19 he won the US Open Tae Kwon Do Championship, and later as a lightweight champion went on to beat both the middle and heavyweight title-holders to obtain the Grand Championship.Rogan also trains regularly with submission specialist Eddie Bravo.
Rogan said on the Underground Forum earlier in the day quote "As for Snipes motivation to fight, he wants to rejuvenate his action movie career..." Other motivation for Snipes is the fact that he owes millions of dollars in back taxes. Snipes hasn\'t had any new movie offers and needs to pay back taxes and hopes this kind of fight could re-launch his career.
If you ask how they can afford to pay celebrities to fight, one of the possibilities that is out there is to give the Celebes a small percentage of the deal from the actual pay per view. Rogan would not comment how much money was offered to him for the potential fight.
The UFC had no comment about the story as they are preparing for this weekend\'s pay per view for UFC 56. At this stage only one party has agreed to the fight, but Snipes was very interested in the fight, as he is a huge fan of the UFC. In order for this fight to happen, Snipes has to agree to the deal as Rogan has already accepted the proposed fight. The other part of the equation is whether they both can pass the Nevada State Athletic Commission\'s official physical. If they can do both of these things, then this fight could happen sometime in 2006.