In a recent episode of his JRE podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan revisited the highly anticipated boxing match between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou. According to Rogan, he believes the event was fixed, as the organizers were already setting up the undisputed title between “The Gypsy King” and Oleksandr Usyk.
Rogan stated, “I thought he [Ngannou] won that fight. But, you know, they were setting up that Usyk fight… it just seemed like the fix was in a little bit. It was close enough that they could pull it off and you go, ‘Okay maybe, maybe you can see [Fury] winning that,’ but I don’t think so, I thought Francis won it, a lot of people thought Francis won it.”
However, Rogan acknowledged that he was pleased Ngannou was able to secure a significant payday from the Fury fight, as many had initially dismissed the prospect of the matchup. “I’m happy that he went and got paid, I’m happy that he got that money for the Tyson Fury fight because everyone was dismissing it, Dana [White] was dismissing it and then he drops Tyson Fury and in a lot of people’s eyes, won the fight,” Rogan said.
The UFC commentator also shared his thoughts on Ngannou’s future with the PFL, the Professional Fighters League. Rogan believes that the PFL’s only path to gaining traction and attention in the MMA landscape is through Ngannou. “If the UFC went away, the PFL would probably take up the slack… Right now… PFL signed Francis. That’s probably the only way that PFL’s gonna get people to pay attention. You have to have someone like Francis,” Rogan explained.
What Rogan is conveniently leaving out is that Ngannou Fury was never for the title due to the fact Ngannou was a boxing debutant so there was doubt as to if it would even get sanctioned. In addition to this fact, there was also an obligatory title unification between Usyk and Fury so the question of if Ngannou would throw a wrench into things was never a real thing.
