Natalia Silva left UFC 332 with the women’s flyweight championship belt after earning a unanimous decision victory over Wang Cong, but her win quickly became overshadowed by heated criticism directed at the commentary team.
According to sources, fans flooded social media with complaints about what they perceived as heavily skewed broadcast analysis from Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier.
The Brazilian star came out strong in the opening round, using her jab effectively and moving in and out of range while Wang Cong found her moments. Silva elevated her performance in the second round, landing a significant head kick that dropped Cong and shifted momentum firmly in the champion’s favor.
Wang Cong showed resilience in the third round, pulling Silva into rough exchanges. The Brazilian maintained her strategy of staying on the outside, selecting her strikes carefully and doing enough to prevent Cong from taking control of the round.
The championship rounds continued with similar patterns, as the 29-year-old Silva controlled distance, landed cleaner strikes, and kept Cong pursuing her.
The judges scored the contest 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46, all in favor of Natalia Silva. However, the decision itself became secondary to the firestorm of commentary criticism that erupted online. A substantial portion of the viewing audience felt that Rogan and Cormier painted a picture of the match that didn’t match what was happening inside the Octagon.
“Natalia Silva is basically winning the entire match, and Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier won’t STFU about Cong,” one viewer complained on social media. Another wrote, “Natalia Silva is winning R4, but if you listened to DC and Rogan, you’d think Wang was dominating.”
Additional viewers expressed stronger reactions. “Rogan and DC making it sound like Wang was beating the [ ] out of Silva,” one fan claimed. Another directed their frustration at the commentary booth: “Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan, please shut the [ ] up and stop glazing, Wang; she is losing.”
A specific moment during the broadcast drew particular attention. When Natalia Silva smiled after absorbing a strike from Cong, Daniel Cormier suggested, “I think she hurt her,” a comment that many fans felt misrepresented what was occurring.
This controversy marks another chapter in an ongoing pattern of commentary criticism for the veteran duo. At UFC 216 in October 2017, Cody Stamann and fans took issue with what they saw as unbalanced analysis during his bout with Tom Duquesnoy.
Critics argued that excessive attention was given to Duquesnoy’s training background while Stamann’s takedowns and combinations received minimal recognition, despite Stamann winning via split decision.
Cormier faced similar criticism during Jan Błachowicz’s title defense against Israel Adesanya at UFC 259, where viewers and media accused the commentary team of focusing excessively on Adesanya’s feints rather than providing balanced analysis of the action.
