When Francis Ngannou switched to boxing, people thought he would drop everyone he touched. After all, his punches are equivalent to 96 horsepower. Alas, that’s not what happened! He faced tough losses, and that is something that hurt Joe Rogan. The UFC commentator was used to seeing Ngannou look very dominant in the UFC.

Remember how the former MMA fighter squared off against Anthony Joshua in March? Unfortunately, AJ stopped him in the second round with a brutal blow that knocked him unconscious. For someone who had never been knocked out, it was brutal. Thus, on June 22, when Rogan was in a discussion with Bryan Callen, Brendan Schaub, and Brian Simpson on his podcast, he shared his thoughts about Ngannou.

The discussion was about potential future prospects for UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Ngannou’s name popped up in the UFC commentator’s mind. “You know really, what I want is a time machine and I want to go back and keep Francis Ngannou there. I want to go back and keep Francis Ngannou there,” he stated on JRE Fight Companion.

Rogan further said, “I love that Francis made a ton of money. I loved that he dropped Tyson Fury. I do not love the Joshua fight. That was sad. Watching him get KO’ed like that against Anthony Joshua was really tough.”

Ngannou made an astonishing $30 million from his fights against Fury and Joshua. This is something that wouldn’t have been possible in the UFC. For instance, he made only $640,000 for his UFC 270 fight against Ciryl Gane.

The 37-year-old was the UFC heavyweight champion when he left the promotion. His contract negotiations with the UFC fell through, as they couldn’t come to a mutual decision. Additionally, the former champion wanted the UFC to let him box- similar to how Conor McGregor was allowed to box against Floyd Mayweather. But Dana White and the UFC were not on board with the Cameroonian-French fighter and both sides chopped off ties.

That’s when the PFL signed Ngannou and allowed him to box. His first bout was against Tyson Fury, which turned out to be a razor-close split decision in Fury’s favor. However, Ngannou earned a lot of respect because it was his debut, yet he managed to drop Fury in round 3.

Now, while Ngannou versus Jones is something that the combat world would like to see, it is highly unlikely to happen. Why? Sure, Ngannou isn’t in the promotion. But it seems Dana White blacklisted him. “He’s absolutely impossible to deal with. He’s – no, he’ll never be in the UFC again. So, he made his decision – we worked hard, man,” the UFC CEO stated. The situation begs the question: what exactly transpired between Ngannou and Dana White that led to this split?

Francis Ngannou wanted more than just money…

The fighter had some issues that he put forth in front of Dana White and other authorities of the UFC. He demanded health insurance for all the fighters. Moreover, he also wanted athletes to be able to have their sponsorship deals. Nevertheless, these demands were turned down during the contract negotiations.

However, the fighter revealed that it was more about freedom. The UFC contract didn’t allow him to box. Talking about this last year, he said, “It doesn’t matter how much (money) is in that contract, I am not free. I have no power over to you guys (the UFC) and I don’t want that to happen.” 

Well, now the fighter is free to do whatever he wants. He can fight in MMA with PFL, and he can compete in boxing despite a contract with PFL. In the end, it seems to have worked out for him.

While he has faced back-to-back losses in boxing, let us not forget that he is new to the sport and faced the most elite names. Only time will tell if he is able to establish a dominance similar to his MMA run. In MMA, he had a 17-3 record. The three losses he had were all unanimous decision losses. He was never knocked out or submitted.

Meanwhile, what are your thoughts about Joe Rogan’s remarks regarding Francis Ngannou? Share your thoughts in the comments below.