The world of mixed martial arts went into absolute shock when Floyd Mayweather took on John Gotti III in a rematch. Even though it was just an exhibition fight, it wasn’t free from drama. In the second round, all eyes were on the squared ring, as Mayweather allegedly fired the referee in charge of the fight, and called for a replacement. ‘Pretty Boy’ seemed pretty furious with the referee’s wrong call as he mistook Mayweather’s perfect right hook for a hit to the back of the head.

The act garnered the attention of the fighting community and professional combat sports athletes have been weighing in on the incident. Now, Joe Rogan has also come up with his views as he defended ‘Money’ for his decision to remove the referee.

Joe Rogan stands with Floyd Mayweather in his decision to fire the referee 

In episode #2195 of the Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan and his guest Andrew Huberman, discussed the rematch between Mayweather and Gotti. Roganm said, “This fight was crazy too, because the referee was, the first referee was terrible. And the referee called Floyd, said Floyd Mayweather hit him behind the head. Absolutely incorrect call. Floyd threw a right hand and it caught him on the side of the head, and the referee claimed that it was behind the head. So Floyd fired the referee in the middle of the bout. He stops the bout, he’s like, ‘Get the f— out of here! Get out of here!’”

The JRE host claimed that the referee couldn’t have done anything with Mayweather so enraged with the wrong call. Rogan pointed out that ‘Money’s right hook landed on the side of Gotti’s head. It was indeed wrong of the referee to claim that Mayweather hit his opponent on the back of his head. Rogan continued, “So, he kicks the guy out and they bring in a different referee who finishes the fight. It was insanity!”

The beloved UFC color commentator didn’t stop his assessment there. He went on and had the podcast producer pull up the video of the fight, and pointed out why the referee was not right. He went on, “it’s f—ng Floyd Mayweather. The best boxer of all time! He’s a 100% correct. That referee made a giant stupid error.“ 

The 56-year-old podcaster further claimed that the entire fighting community believed that Mayweather was right. It was wrong of the referee to interfere in the fight. Later on, Rogan opined that the referee probably didn’t know anything about boxing. He said, “it’s literally like someone who probably doesn’t know how to box at all telling the greatest boxer of all time that what he’s doing is wrong.”

But there are a few entities who believe that Mayweather didn’t ‘fire’ the referee. And one of them is the former UFC fighter, Chael Sonnen. 

UFC veteran believes ‘Money’ had no power to fire the referee

‘The American Gangster’ took to his YouTube talk show and broke down the moment that had caused so much trouble in the rematch fight between Gotti and Mayweather. Sonnen pointed out that there was no proof of ‘Pretty Boy’ firing the referee. The former UFC contender claimed that the video only showed Mayweather entering a heated argument with the referee. And the reasonable conclusion was either the referee quit or the commission was the one pulling him out of the fight. 

‘The Bad Guy’ simply stood against the notion that Mayweather was the one who fired the referee. After all, he did not own the promotion. Sonnen said, “But to say that Floyd fired the referee when it’s on tape and he did no such thing, not to mention, he was not the referee’s boss…”

Needless to say, ‘Money’ received backlash from a lot of other people. However, Rogan’s support remained undiminished for the former boxing champion. What are your thoughts on Rogan’s claims? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.