Brendan Schaub has no regrets about retiring from MMA after a candid intervention by Joe Rogan, and he has since found success in various endeavors outside the octagon, despite occasional temptations to return for financially lucrative offers.
Brendan Schaub doesn’t regret hanging up his MMA gloves, though the path to retirement was a bit bumpy. It wasn’t so much his struggle with the decision but rather the public intervention by his friend Joe Rogan. Just days after losing to Travis Browne in 2014, Rogan confronted Schaub on his podcast, The Fighter and the Kid, urging him to retire.
“The reality of your skill set, where you’re at now, I don’t see you beating the elite guys,” Rogan bluntly told Schaub. Names like Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos were mentioned—fighters Rogan believed Schaub couldn’t defeat.
Schaub initially resisted, planning a UFC return. Yet, that bout with Browne marked his last fight. A decade later, Schaub looks back and appreciates Rogan’s honesty despite its harshness at the time.
“When you’re fighting, especially at the UFC level, everyone is so damn good,” Schaub said to MMA Fighting. He acknowledged Rogan saw potential beyond fighting for him. “Dude, you can do all this stuff,” Rogan had insisted. And he was right.
Schaub’s family was furious with Rogan then but now thanks him for his candor. Since retiring, Schaub has thrived in other ventures—podcasting with Bryan Callen and launching Food Truck Diaries. He even dipped into standup comedy.
Retirement isn’t one-size-fits-all for athletes, but Schaub had plans beyond the cage. That foresight keeps him content while others grapple with leaving the sport behind. “Fighters are a special breed,” Schaub noted. “It can’t be your entire identity.”
Despite being retired for nearly a decade, offers still come knocking. Recently, Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA tempted him with a lucrative deal. But Schaub declined; he values life without head trauma over money.
“They’re like, ‘For that number you’re going to have to fight [Junior dos Santos] or Derrick Lewis,’” Schaub recalled. His response? A firm no.
While he admits some scenarios could tempt him back into the ring, they’d need to be low risk and high reward. “If a Logan Paul or Jake Paul came about… sign me up!” he joked. But facing real fighters? Not happening; he’s got kids to think about.