Joe Rogan says Francis Ngannou would dominate Tyson Fury in "real fight.": "I love boxing, but we all know"
Podcast extraordinaire and MMA personality Joe Rogan recently had UFC welterweight champion Belal 'Remember The Name' Muhammad over in his show, Joe Rogan Experience. The two spoke about a myriad of things, including how some members of the media are still in the dark when it comes to understanding the sport of MMA.
Muhammad remembered an interview he had recently with the Chicago News where the reporter had no idea who he was nor did any research on the sport. The UFC welterweight king said that the reporter called him the "champion of street fighting", which drew a tired groan from Rogan, who said:
"Oh boy. Imagine that. You're literally the world champion and this person hasn't even done five of research in the sport you do."
Rogan added:
"That's so disrespectful to someone who has risen to the top of the greatest organization ever for combat sports. We all know, that look, I'm a huge boxing fan, boxing's amazing, I love boxing, but we all know if Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury had a FIGHT fight, that sh*t will not last one round... Like an MMA fight. Boxing is a sport. MMA is the sport of fighting."
Rogan went on to say that while boxing is a bona fide martial art that requires high levels of skill and discipline, MMA is much harder as it's the closest thing to real-life combat. He also said that people like Muhammad and Francis Ngannou are the best at one of the hardest combat sports ever - and need to be recognized by the mainstream media more
Check out Joe Rogan's comments below (starting from 8:32):
Belal Muhammad explains to Joe Rogan why he didn't main event UFC 300
One of the other things Joe Rogan and Belal Muhammad talked about was the Palestinian-American fighter's long road to the top. Despite not losing in the UFC for eleven straight fights, Muhammad didn't get the title shot until his eight years in the company.
Back when Muhammad was largely accepted as the next challenger to Leon Edwards' welterweight belt, people were wondering why they weren't booked for the historic UFC 300 card.
Muhammad explained (via Joe Rogan Experience):
"I put it out there. I said if they really want Leon [Edwards] to fight there, they would have put me on there because I said yes. They said they asked [UFC lightweight champion] Islam [Makhachev], they said they asked Shavkat Rakhmonov, they said they asked Khamzat [Chimaev], and they all said no because of Ramadan. But I fought multiple times during Ramadan. So for me, if they really wanted Leon, they could have had him with me. But I think they just wanted to have that shock factor with 300, where it's like, 'Oh double champ status for Islam'."
Muhammad and Edwards eventually met at UFC 304 where the challenger dominated the then-champion en route to a unanimous decision win.