Joe Rogan and Francis Ngannou are baffled by Cedric Doumbe's controversial loss at PFL Paris: "How the fu*k does the other guy get a win?"
Joe Rogan and Francis Ngannou recently reacted to Cedric Doumbe's loss at PFL Paris. Doumbe appeared to be cruising to a comfortable victory against Baysangur Chamsoudinov, when an unusual incident cost him the fight, resulting in a TKO loss.
In Round 3 of the fight, Doumbe approached referee Marc Goddard to complain about a splinter lodged in his toe. Goddard asked Doumbe to continue and when the 31-year-old approached again, the famed MMA referee waved off the fight declaring Chamsoudinov the winner by TKO due to injury.
During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan and Ngannou discussed the controversial loss. Rogan said:
"All they had to do was pull it out of his toe. He was like, 'Hey, I stepped on something' and the referee was like, 'Fight's off.'"
Ngannou suggested that the referee should have inspected the presence of a foreign object inside the cage after Doumbe's complaint, which could have posed a danger to other fighters as well. Rogan replied:
"Yeah, that's dangerous. That should be a No Contest. There is no way that should count as a loss. That's insane. No chance. How the f* does that other guy get a win?"
Check out Joe Rogan and Francis Ngannou's comments below (38:10):
Joe Rogan and Francis Ngannou disagree with the alleged rule that caused Cedric Doumbe to lose by TKO
Cedric Doumbe's controversial TKO loss became one of the most debated topics on the internet in the days following the fight. MMA journalist Aaron Bronsteter later reported that under the timidity section of the referee guidelines, the referee has to ask a fighter to continue fighting if he calls for a time-out.
In a detailed post on X, Bronsteter argued that Marc Goddard could not have processed the information about a splinter potentially lodged in Doumbe's toe and followed the guidelines to stop the fight. Many members of the MMA community shared similar opinions about the incident.
Check out Aaron Bronsteter's full tweet here:
While discussing Doumbe's controversial loss, Joe Rogan and Francis Ngannou shared their thoughts on the hypothesis. Ngannou said:
"That's wrong. It should be time-out. There is a foreign object in the cage." [39:39]
Rogan and Ngannou noted that Doumbe was not trying to find a way out of a difficult situation when he approached the referee for a time-out. Rogan added:
It's so obvious that there is something wrong. The referee should just say, 'time', ask him what he's saying. It wasn't like he was in trouble and he was looking for a time-out." [39:55]