MMA Fighting - Fury vs. Ngannou Reaction | Was Francis Ngannou Robbed vs. Tyson Fury?

Episode Date: October 29, 2023

Francis Ngannou may not have gotten the official victory against Tyson Fury on the scorecards, but he sure feels like Saturday's biggest winner after defying the odds and taking the lineal boxing heavyweight champion to his absolute limit. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Alexander K. Lee react to Fury edging out a heavily debated split decision over the former UFC heavyweight champion, discuss whether or not Ngannou was robbed by two of the judges, why it doesn't ultimately matter whether he was or not, if Ngannou's next fight will be in the boxing ring, if he'll return to MMA at all, how "The Predator" has been able to silence his many critics — including UFC CEO Dana White — if the targeted Fury vs. Usyk fight is more or less interesting, and so much more following the Battle of the Baddest fight card. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It means it's the victory horn. And officially, they sound.

Left of the graphic, Tyson Fury, winning a split decision against Brancel. Repeat those words. Eeks out. split decision against Francis and Ghanu in Saudi Arabia. Not that long ago, the fight just came to an end. Francis and Ghanu may not have won the fight, but he won right here. He won in all of our hearts. And even though two of the scorecards did not read that, I think we can all agree.

Anybody who's watching the stream right now that Francis and Gano is a friggin' winner, and I am so proud of that guy for showing up the way they did you tonight. We're going to react to all of it right now. I am Mike Heck, I am not alone. Let us say hello to the wise wordsmith, Mr. Shaheen Al-Shadi, and my best friend, Alexander K. Lee. Shaheen, I want to begin with you. We talked a lot of things on the preview show yesterday.

All the ways this fight could go. But eking out a split decision, Tyson Fury, where the live odds at the end of the fight were basically a coin flip. it was almost even money. Francis and Ghana went out there and just did the damn thing, Shaheen Al-Shadi. He may not have won the fight, but he did the damn thing.

What is your reaction to what Francis Nagano did despite losing the fight? I am stunned. I'm speechless. We talked about this on the preview show. When we were like, at the end of the show, we were sort of joking around of like, what would be the funniest outcome? And I think I maybe threw it out or you threw it out of like,

hey, how about a split decision? that ends up in controversy, just to be total boxing, total MMA, total chaos as the combat sports gods tend to give us. Dude, what the hell did we just watch? That was unbelievable. That was legitimately one of the most unbelievable sporting performances I have ever watched in my entire life. And I've been on this earth, 34 years now, maybe 35, I think I'm 34, maybe 35. I've been on this earth a couple decades, at least, and I have never seen something that has impressed me to that degree. Francis Ngano just went in there in his professional boxing debut and kind of beat the lineal heavyweight boxing champion, the number one heavyweight in boxing. He certainly beat him by pride

rules, right? If we're scoring this by pride FC rules as the good lords intended from back in the day, Francis is Ngano is the one that you wanted to be walking out of that fight. He landed by far the most impactful punches of that fight. He had by far the most impactful sequences of that fight. He for a good portion of the early going was kind of out boxing the best heavyweight on the planet. And altogether, like, I don't know, I scored about 94, or I'm sorry, 95, 94 for Francis. I will give, I had it five rounds apiece. I will give all assurances that that I could go either way on that score, right? Like a lot of these rounds outside of the big ones were very back and forth, kind of like you could score either way. So I don't, I don't fault anybody who scores that fight for Tyson Fury. The fact that, for Francis

and gone who just got one point on a single scorecard away from pulling off what was legitimately impossible or felt impossible is just completely remarkable on a different level that we have ever than i have seen in a long time and we've said it so much with this man right like his story is impossible his story is so improbable that if you took the script of his life story into a hollywood agent's office they would tell you like yeah this is nice but like no one's going to actually believe this. This might have been the mass. This is like the climax of that story, right? Like that third round when he knocks down Tyson Fury and you get these instantly iconic photos from Getty images of Francis and God who's standing over a fallen Tyson Fury. I can't believe we just watch this.

This we have seen so many different versions of this MMA versus boxing thing over the last several years since Connor McGregor and Floyd met with a start really kicked this off. This was by far. the best actual fight that we have seen that has come out of this type of setup. It was so worth the time in a way that I think is surprising because a lot of people were wondering whether this would be worth their time. And again, Dyson Fier has not fought, or Tysifera has not fought, I should say, to a split decision since that Deonté Wilder draw. That is the only other split decision in his career.

And Francis Ogoner just went there and did that to that man. That was unreal, Mike. I can't believe it. AK, you heard Chehen Al-Shadi scorecard. There's the image, right? There's one of the images right there. There's Francis landing a big shot. That one, man.

There's the one, dude. That is so awesome. That is so awesome. That it looks like something out of a dream, man. That cannot be real. And it looks just like Francis A-No. I know I'm like, who-hoo-hoo. How you feel right now, Tyson?

This is AI, Geno. Let's give credit. Really quick, really quick. Let's give credit. Those shots are from. Justin Sederfield. Best shots of your career, Justin. I don't know what else you've done,

but thank you for giving us that because you were in the perfect angle at the perfect moment. Those are unbelievable shots. You are the Francis and Ghanu of Getty Images. Congratulations, Justin, you nailed it. AK, you heard Shaheen scorecard. I believe, as, you know, us being a website called enemy fighting.

We don't have to talk about this. We don't have to talk about this. Hold on, my best friend. This is why we're best friends, okay? This is why we're best friends. Sure. Shaheen scores the fight in real time for Francis and Gano for team MMA. It's a popular choice.

You scored the fight differently than he did. As a matter of fact, A.K., anyone watching the watch party can concur with this. I scored it the exact same way as you did, AK, the exact same way. And we scored it for Tyson Fury. We scored it the way one of the judges scored it. and maybe the most unpopular card of them all. How did you score it? Because I scored it the same.

Yeah. Anyone also keeping up with the live blog of the main events on enamefiting.com? That was me. I think it has our editor's name on it because they made the post. But that was me. I am responsible for that score. I tweeted this score. Mike, I had it 96 to 93 Fury.

Let me pause. Let's let some comments come in here. People calling for my head. People saying I don't know anything about anything. People say I hate Francis. I don't know. My head is up my butt. I don't know.

There's probably a lot of people not. Even before, I saw a lot of people talking about this course. So let me be clear here. Let me be clear here. 95, 94 in Fury and 95, 94 in Ganu are defensible scores. I understand. I understand. There's easy to say for Inganu, the most definitive round of the fight.

10-8 round three and all you have to do is fine is then say that the rest of the rounds are even if it went 5-5 then the advantage goes to francis because he had the knockdown he had the only 10-8 of the fight so totally understand why pull were coming through with that but there were several rounds in there that were we could say toss-ups i actually think were pretty easy to score for fury um i would i i and i'm not infallible on this i'm like everybody else this is my first viewing maybe i'll go re-watch it back at some point. I think we all have to, I think if we want to be clear on the scoring, but to say 95, 94 Fury or even, again, 96, 93 Fury is unreasonable. That sounds crazy to me. Like, I think some of those closer, look at some of those close rounds that you guys are saying

are toss-ups. If you're saying it's a toss-up, then you're saying that it could have gone to Fury. And if you're okay with that, then you can't have a problem with the scoring. If your issue is like, well, how could all these toss-ups go Fury's way? That's how toss-ups work, guys. It's not like you say it's not like you say oh well i'm okay with the two or three of the rounds being toss-ups but not you know and going this way but not all no it's a toss-up each each round is independent of the other if you wanted to say that you feel francis won the round as a whole as uh as it said earlier pride rules or diaz rules he got the knockdown of the fight sure sure he he came the closest to finishing the fight and if you were judging the fight as a whole and not by you know standard boxing

score, I think Francis won. But if you're going round by round, as I did, I had it at 96, 93 Fury. I think it's very reasonable. I think the judge you had that. Perfectly defensible score. I know people are going to be mad about it. I know people are going to think I'm stupid. I'm stupid for a lot of reasons. And if you want to add this score to that list of reasons, by all means, have at it. But I have, I will defend it until the day I die. I know. Bring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on. What are we doing? What are we talking about here? Francis and Gano just I scored it the same as you, A.K.

People, I know. I know my best friend. I know. That's fine. And that's cool. But ultimately, that is not the biggest takeaway from this fight. The biggest takeaway from this fight is that Francis deGon just went in there and did what almost everyone in the world belittled him for, called it impossible. Like that man just told so many people to shove it in the wildest way that I have maybe

ever seen someone do. That was crazy, man. Even if you want to score it as close. as close as you did. Francis and Ganu having the most impactful moment of the night and Francis and Ghanu bringing that man to a split decision. Like we were having, we were having conversations in the pre-fight of like,

what could logistically conceivably be considered a win for Francis, right? And I think we all kind of settle like, oh, if he kind of lasts a couple, wins a couple rounds or maybe he lands like a really good punch. And then you have that highlight forever. Sort of the Connor Floyd thing, right? We're like,

Floyd carried Connor through the early rounds. So you could kind of be like, oh, more competitive than we expected. And you even had like, Hall of Fame boxers like Mike Tyson and Vanderholyfield being like, oh, that was, Connor did great. That was way more competitive than we expected. This was actually competitive. That was not a real competitive fight in Maymac. That was Floyd Mayweather choosing to make it competitive.

And then deciding that no longer will this be competitive. I'm going to end this. This was actually a competitive fight. This was crazy, man. This was one of the most bananas things that we've ever seen. Francis and God, who just made himself, like aside from whatever he is going to make tonight in terms of a payday, in terms of the money that he made from this fight, which I'm sure is going to be a lot. And kudos to you, Francis. You did it.

Everyone told you you were dumb. You told him to shove it and you actually did it and you pulled it off. He just made himself so much more money outside of tonight. Right? Like he is now, if you listen to the post fight show after this fight on the broadcast, all the boxing guys were floored. All of them were calling for him to stay as a boxer now and make these massive paydays in boxing. That man is like a top five heavyweight boxer.

probably know right like like what are we talking about this is crazy man francis gano just made himself a ridiculous amount of money in the future tonight because there are going to be calls for him to fight these big names now whether it's a wilder or a joshua or a ruis or whoever you want to throw out there like i am now suddenly incredibly interested in seeing francis and gone with the boxer the heavyweight boxer and i'm sure i'm not alone right like if you're a boxing fan who would poo poohed this whole thing for months and months and then you tuned in tonight and you saw this man kind of style up Tyson Fury for portions of this fight and again knock that man down and really come as close as anybody has in the history of this sport to beating that man.

You have to come away from this just so intrigued by what Francis could be in your own sport now. Like that man just made so much money tonight. I don't even know if we're going to end up seeing his PFL debut because if I'm Francis, I'm going home. I'm cashing this gigantic check. And then I am immediately calling PFL and be like, hey, I'm sorry, guys. Plains might have changed. Like we might be doing it.

We might do a couple things. right now. And I'm booking whatever the biggest boxing name I can get is, and just keep making this bag. Because that was, no one expected this tonight. No one. I don't know if he came, hold on. I don't know if he came the closest to beating Tyson Fury. Deonti Wilder literally killed him and he just came back to life. I think Wilder, I would say, still was closer to beating Fury. I think, is that fair to say? Even though Fury, you know, was too. Okay. Let's not get caught up in the moment here. But this is why I didn't want to get into the scoring right away because the most important thing is like this was fun as hell to watch i mean

mma is supposed to be fun combat sports is supposed to be fun and and i want to say we when we did our sort of a round table before talking this fight i was the most one of the people who was most excited about it i think mike you and you and damon and i were on this you guys were kind of like the five six range because and i was with you as far as like yeah maybe maybe fury just takes something much easily but also like the the fact that something crazy could happen the fact that he was even happening had me so excited and that the fight actually turned out to be good is so awesome like every everyone was saying like what a joke there's going to be and like not to pay for it anyone who paid for this got their money's worth and then so minus the insane pacing which we complained about later but if you just

paid for this fight it was so fun and it was so entertaining if you're the pfl don't worry about him fighting in m m ms set him up with a boxing mac you know what pfl it's time to get into boxing if you if you if you have him contracted and you can have him get a boxing fight find some heavyweight boxers, some journeymen. You don't need to get a big name. Find someone that Francis can fight and either style on or knock out. This is how you utilize him. I'm fine with seeing Francis fighting him again.

But, Sheen, you said it, like, I really want to see him box somebody. Because if this is how good he looked against, again, the number one guy in the world, the Linnell heavyweight champion, with, you know, he's got combat training, but with very little actual pro boxing, like, training, experience, who knows how good he'll look at his next fight. So and he's up, you know, I don't know how many fights he has left. And if I have to choose between him, you know, for going down this boxing road or going back to MMA, I'm kind of good with him just sticking with the boxing road. You think he can do both great. But if I had to choose one,

Francis, the boxer, I'm all in. I'm all in, man. I think the fL's got to jump on this. Dude. Yeah. Just like to just to put into perspective what a once in a lifetime athlete, Francis has really become like the way the leaps and the steps that this man has taken like the steps that this man is skipped to get to where he has right like he he we all know the story so I'm not going to go deep into it because nobody needs to hear it again but to go where he to come from where he comes from and then end up in France and turn to MMA and on a whim sort of just turned to MMA and then before even the end of his second year of just figuring out that MMA exists he's already in the UFC he's already destroying people and already at that

point it ends up being like a year or two. And then he's already fighting for a title. And then he wins the title and all this just advancement that has happened so rapidly, so rapidly. And then what do you know? He's like, hey, I'm going to try to box. And he trains boxing for four months and almost beats Tyson Fury. Like this is, I don't understand what game this man is playing. Like he is playing life on rookie mode after having played like the most of it on like Hall of Fame mode. And all of a sudden the sliders just went way down and it's just all easy for him but it's just crazy man this is unprecedented stuff again you could take this to a hollywood agent's office and they would just kick you out and be like yeah you probably got to make this a little more believable yeah and this is why i don't

want people to dwell on the scoring it's like just enjoy what you saw that was awesome if you feel like francis won great great street rules street rules he won he he he the result almost doesn't matter I know we'd all like to see it and have an official win over Tess and Fury. That would take this to another level. But that he did as well as he did and performance as well he did has a highlight reel. Those pictures will last forever. The highlights of this fight will be knocking Fury down, Fury kind of almost stumbling into like a double leg. You could easily put together a reel that's just like, wow, like in Ganu beat this guy, right?

That's how strong this performance was. So you're right. Maybe I'm out to lunch. My best friend, Mike, maybe you're out to lunch too. Maybe we're crazy. maybe that 96 93 judges that's like no I mean we're definitely not but I don't think

I don't think you're crazy I don't think you're crazy at all I think any scoring on a lot of this is pretty justified you could make arguments either way I just don't think that's the story at all like that the story that's exactly incredibly if we saw tonight

if you are spending your evening fuming about the score as opposed to appreciating this awesome performance by Francis and what we saw then you are not enjoying fighting, my friend. Then you take a break, step away from the monitor. Keep our show on, though, keep that Buchat there, but step away, take a breath and then think about like how fun that was. It was just a really, really enjoyable fight to watch. This here's, here's like a couple of my biggest takeaways. One, Francis, like, you could have scored at Mississippi to Texas,

which aren't even numbers. And it doesn't matter. Francis still won tonight. Francis still won. And here's the other thing, guys. Here's the other thing. Another thing, what you guys also said as well, I have to say, I have zero interest in watching France and Gano fight an MMA ever again. I don't want to see him fighting MMA ever again. Unless he gets John Jones tomorrow, I don't care to see him fighting MMA again. I want to see this journey in boxing continue. He does have a meeting. Pay PFL to get out of the damn contract if you have to, but get out of there and box, all right? You want to be an ambassador and help grow the sport in Africa for the promotion? Great. I don't want to see him throw a single punch in an MMA cage ever again.

after this performance. Go box and be a ranked heavyweight. He should be a ranked heavyweight. And here's the other big takeaway, guys. And Shaheen, I'll start with you on this. I honestly think that this is the best thing that could have happened tonight. This result is the best thing that could have happened. Yes, we have loved to watch Francis Ngano style on Tyson Fury and give us a big win. Great. But still, as a combat sports enthusiast, we still want to see Tyson Fury Alexander Usik for the undisputed heavyweight title. This has been a long as time since we have seen an undisputed heavyweight title fight in the boxing ring. Since Lennox Lewis, we have not had an undisputed

heavyweight champion. We still get that fight. Plus, Francis still did everything he could have done with the win. He shocked the world. He sent a ripple effect through the combat sports world. Timothy Bradley Jr., who thought Francis was a laughing stock. Now I was like, back to MMA, be a freaking heavyweight. All these people want to see Francis Box. And he didn't win the, sure he didn't win the fight, but he won the fight in so many other ways, Shaheen. Everything that he could have gained with a win, he still gained with the loss. And we still get to see Fury Usik for the undisputed heavyweight title. I mean, that's certainly a way

to look at it. And I won't tell you you you're wrong, although I would submit to you that, sure, you want to see Fury Usik right now. I want to see Angano Usik. Like, that's what I want to see. Come on, man. I want to see how far he can go. Like, we just watched this man, oh, basically. basically beat disfigure. But he could get the winner! He could get the winner! I scored it for Francis Inganu. I will reiterate, 94, 95, 94.

I really would love to see Engano as Usick now. I'm just going to reiterate that again because that just suddenly is something I've never thought about and feels incredibly intriguing to me. But you're not wrong, Mike. Like, like ultimately, if Francis wasn't going to win, this was the best case scenario for everybody. Because I think you're right, boxing gets the fight that boxing wanted. of God who is, like, what level of superstardom do you think this is going to rocket him to? That's what I'm interested in, right? Because we saw this with the McGregor thing. Like,

Connor was 10 times of the superstar that Francis was when he went into Maymac. But how big that was and how many eyes that got in front of and just how mainstream that whole thing became. And then the fact that it was, in some people's eyes, a competitive fight, even though it wasn't actually competitive. And Floyd kind of ended it whenever he wanted. That rocket. Connor to a level that no one had ever seen before in MMA in terms of stardom, even though he had kind of already been to a level no one had ever seen before, but that rocketed it even like 20-fold, right? Like he just became so much bigger than any other MMA fighter ever had before that.

This fight is not comparable in the sense that like it's not nearly as big. There's not nearly as many eyeballs on it. I wasn't at least getting the texts from, you know, parents and siblings and friends of like, oh, how can I watch this fight or what do you think about this fight that you do for some of the bigger fights? but I think the result will be will be much wider disseminated than the actual fight was right? Like a lot of people will see that photo

much more people than actually watched this fight. I'm incredibly curious to see what where this pushes, Francis, in terms of just mainstream exposure, eyeballs, people knowing who he is. Because this feels like something that will shatter through the ecosystem of combat sports, right?

This feels like something that the grandma on the side of the corner may hear about in her internet travels or on the paper tomorrow. Like this feels like a momentous occasion of which we rarely get. And tell me if I'm wrong. Like I would love for somebody to come in and maybe calm me down a bit. But it does feel like this is something that like where's Francis Star going to be after this? He's massive, man.

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Shaheen, we were talking for a while, like, who's getting... Francis and Ghana might be the fighter of the year in a loss. Like, he might just be my fighter of the year in a loss after all of this. Because this is just ridiculous. Even what Sean Strickland beating Israel out of Sanya, which is incredible to watch and shocking in so many ways, this was way more shocking, AK. This was way more shocking.

This means so much, especially with what Shaheen says. AK, do you understand that when the WBC boxing rankings come out next, Francis Ngano is going to be a top 10 heavyweight in the world after this fight, AK. It's going to happen. This is insane. That doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound right. And yet it is.

And yet it is. It doesn't sound right, and yet it is. Yeah, imagine you have to try to imagine being someone who was seeing Francis for the first time, maybe even Tyson Fury for the first time. If you actually makes it easier, let's say you've never seen either of these guys' fight before. Nothing that happened in this fight would have told you that Tyson Fury was, again, the greatest heavyweight boxer in the world today. Not to say he fought badly, but I'm saying compared to how well Francis did,

that he's one of the greatest heavy boxer of all time, and that Francis, you know, is theoretically not in his league. Like there's, there's, I wish I could put myself in those shoes. I wish I could plot myself down and be like, and just be like, wow, this, you know, this Ngana guy, he might have won this fight. Like, he might have done it. Like, I wish I could do it. But even knowing what we know, it's still a truly astonishing achievement.

Again, I was excited for the fight, but I did not give Francis a chance. I joked that with all the delays, I think we had to wait, what, over an hour for the fight. They kept adding to the timer. I was like, oh, at least they put a timer on. They kept adding to the timer. I joke like, well, now the fight's going to last like 30 seconds. It lasts a lot longer than 30 seconds. And boy, Francis has some great moments.

He's really a gifted, we say this was almost used as a, as a, not an insult, but this was almost used to take away from like his success early on. Like, well, he's just a gifted athlete. He's just like out muscling people. He's out, you know, he's out explosiving people. I know that's not a word. But I think at this point, we have to view Francis as some sort of combat sports prodigy. Because his success he had in MMA, of course, speaks for itself.

The success he had tonight. And now, who knows, the success that he can have going forward, it really is unlike anything we've seen in the world of combat sports. And we've seen everything, guys. I mean, between us and, you know, everyone else in the M.A. fighting staff, we've seen everything. I thought I saw everything before I saw how Francis performed against Tyson Fury tonight. Can I also say, just quickly. Please. I want to give credit where credit is due because 49 days ago, we watched Sean Strickland author this unbelievable, dominant, thorough, 25-minute upset over Israel-A-Sania in a spot

where nobody actually thought that that would happen. That was just like one of the most stunning things we had seen in some time when that happened. Forty-nine days later, the same coach was out there in Saudi Arabia in Francis Agon's corner, Eric Nixick, and the whole staff, Dewey Cooper, everybody out there at Extreme Couture, same exact staff, nearly did it again in a way, in a spot that was like 50 times more unlikely, right? Like, Eric Nixon and the Extreme Couture staff over a span of 49 days, nearly authored two of the biggest upsets in combat sports history. Just think about that for a second.

That is unbelievable, man. Unbelievable. I can't, I, it's beyond words, coach of the year, like easily coach of the year. I don't care that they didn't win this fight. That's Coach of the other. And my dogs are barking, so I'm going to meet myself. They're excited. They're excited.

Listen, when the animals are barking, that's how you know. Something has happened that the primal nature of reality has been shifted. And that, so I do not blame the dogs for being excited. There's probably dogs barking all over, all over the world right now, knowing that we almost saw a momentous upset. what probably would have been the greatest upset in combat sports history, almost more so than if Inganu had knocked him out, right? We were all saying, well, Ngano has the power catching with a shot.

If he had won a decision over Fury, I had said in our sort of lead up to this that I didn't think it would necessarily be the greatest upset, but only because I was going by the, oh, anything can happen, Francis K-O-him, blah, blah, blah. But France is out pointing him, out boxing Tyson Fury, that to me would go down as the greatest upset in Combat's Force history. Nobody was giving him a chance. I wish, Mike, I would give anything right now to get Dana White's immediate reaction.

I'm a little sad. He doesn't have his Twitter fingers going. I'm not sure what he would say. The last thing on his feed is something related to Power Slap. So that was 19 hours ago. I feel like we might not get upset. That feels very on brand. That if you're looking like, God, I wonder what Dana White said.

I'm going to chime in from the production from the production truck. Just a quick update for our listeners that are willing. waiting. The Francis and Gano Tyson Fury press conference has been canceled per top rank, so there will be no post-fight press conference per reporters on the ground. So for those of you that are on our YouTube page waiting for the press conference to start, it is not happening per top-rank officials. So stick around on the MMA fighting Fury and Ganoo post-fight show instead. Back to you, Mike. Interesting. Very, very interesting.

Benica canceled Mm-hmm Hmm Wild stuff Francis and Ghanu even shook up The entire event Francis and Gano's performance Even canceled the press conference

He was so damn good tonight This man is just a treasure And just to think Shahid And AK This is the guy who fumbled the bag Did he not? This is the guy that should have stuck around With the UFC

And taking that $8 million to fight John Jones one time. Boy, did Francis and Ghanu turn that some bitch sideways and just shove it where the sun don't shine, did he not? I love this so much. This whole thing, this narrative that he fumbled the bag, that he pissed away everything by leaving the UFC. He'll never box anybody big.

He'll never get the Tyson Fury fight. He's going to go fight a bunch of bums in the PFL. All of these narratives that were sung about Francis and Gannes. Gano as he, by the way, marched his happy ass outside of the UFC headquarters and left on his own accord to go and do this and bet on himself. Boy, did that bet pay off, Shaheen. Francis and Ghanu fumbled that bag. He fumbled it all right. And then he sprinted 40 yards to pick up a way heavier bag that just happened to have 25 million more dollars in it. And then if he runs another 40 yards. There's a 50 million dollar bag and the bag's just going to continue to get

heavier and heavier. Sheehan, this is the story of all stories. Francis, that's it. He's my fighter in the air. It's over. You muted. You are muted, Sean. Yeah, you know, dogs. I'm sorry. The speed with which people rushed to bury this man midway through this year when maybe things weren't working out the way that they expected or it wasn't working out fast enough. The way in which people were so eager to pile on. Never made a lot of sense to me. Because what do we ask for in MMA? What do we constantly call for? We ask for these guys to stand up for themselves. We asked for these fighters to get the best that they can, to make the most of this window, because we know so many of these athletes that we love and watch every weekend and gives us so much entertainment

throughout the course of our lives and our weeks and our years. So many of those athletes end up broken, broke, running a gym because they don't have other options. And it just doesn't work out for them in a way you would hope for a professional athletes. So we ask them, hey, stand up for yourself. You sign the contract. You sign the contract. Don't sign the contract if you don't like the money.

One guy actually did that. One guy actually stood up for himself and said, you know what? I am going to fight the system a little bit. I'm going to push back. I'm going to push for better because we deserve better. And I'm not going to sign the contract. And I'm going to go out and try to figure out what I'm going to find out what I'm actually worth. And everyone was so quick to rush to bury him, to put him six feet under,

to put that man in his grave. And then what do you know? Who's dancing, who's enjoying his night tonight? There is no other fighter in MMA. You tell me, Mike, maybe I'm wrong. Is there another fighter in heavyweight MMA right now who could have gone out there and had this performance against Tyson Fury? No. Does John Jones have this performance against Tyson Fury? No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I'm not going down this row because I don't know I wouldn't have thought Francis Naganu could have had this before us against Tyson Purex so now I don't want to go on the limb and say nobody could because after tonight again I'm done like predictions yeah I mean John John John's not a terrible striker though I mean I don't we don't view him as like a traditional boxer he's not a terrible striker I think John Jones he's a good he's a good kickboxer with knees elbows kicks etc sure good defense good striking defense right it It'd be very different. It'd be very different for sure. But like, I, we didn't think Francis could. We didn't think Francis could. So I can't rule on anybody else. But that's why I, you know, forget the hypotheticals. The point is Francis did. I think that's the thing to dwell on here is Francis did. And he could, he, the proof isn't the pudding.

Whether we think someone else could or not, he's the only one who can say that he did anything close to this. So I don't know. I hope this opens up the door for more opportunities. I hope people follow Francis's example. It is risky. Listen, I'm sure even if you're Francis, and his team, there's moments where like, okay, maybe this isn't going to happen. Maybe this is going to happen. But there's zero chance of it happening if you don't go for it. This is, I don't mean to go a hallmark movie on people here, but that is the, right? I know, it sounds corny.

You've got to believe in yourself. That's a lesson to be taken from. And we saw this promo, like a million. I mean, we saw the Francis promos a million times on the broadcast. So if you didn't know about France's story, you didn't know how inspirational it was, it was certainly drilled home. But there's a truth to it, guys. There's a truth to it.

There's a reason being cynical about him leaving the UFC was so foolish. I think, Mike, I don't know if it's you and I that we did the reaction when he signed with the PFL or when he parted waves to the UFC. I was on one of those reactions shows, maybe both. And both times we were like, we were so fully in support because, one, we thought he'd get the Fury fight. Two, we were like, even if he doesn't get the Fury fight, he could get a while there, he could get Anthony Joshua, he could get some other big boxing match.

It's not that there was no downside, is that the upside was. was so much higher than him staying with the UFC that to not take that risk, if anything, not taking the risk would have been the foolish thing to do. So I'm glad that Francis silenced all the skeptics. Silence me too. I'm sure maybe I might have been skeptical at one point. If I was, guess what? I don't have to shut the hell up because Francis did the damn thing, just getting the

fight and now opening up so many possibilities for himself. It's really, really great to see. Shaheen. Remember when Dana White in January said, end I quote, I think Francis is in a place right now where he doesn't want to take a lot of risk. He's got it in his head that there are bigger opportunities outside of the UFC with lesser opponents. That's what Dana White said in January after he buried Francis and Gano after he left the UFC. Boy, oh boy. It's been a tough year for Dana White. Has it not. Sheesh, man. That did not age well at all. noted non-risk taker Francis Ngano. You gotta love it. This is so incredible. This really is so incredible. I'm stunned, man.

I'm stunned. I can't believe what I just watched. And I'm trying so hard not to be the MMA guy just being way overreacting in the moment. But like I genuinely feel like that was one of the most incredible things I've seen in sports. Just from like a single man's performance. on a big stage like this, considering everything that went into it. Like, that was unbelievable. I kept waiting.

Even the boxing community right now, even the, I'm sorry, yeah, even the boxing community right now is like, all right, M. Okay. We finally got one. We finally got one. You're all right. Welcome. Uh, go ahead.

Okay. I kept waiting for the banana peel. You know, the knockdown, I mean, changed everything. But then, but after, after I calmed down from knockdown, maybe around five. six or seven i thought like okay this is the part where tyson fury turns it on this is the part where he he figures francis out he lands a good combination he was landing some combinations but it really never felt like he had fran even if he was winning like by points it never felt like francis was in huge danger there was some good shots in there but i don't know if fury ever landed anything that had us

going like oh francis in trouble francis's her france's about to go down um again he might have been losing the rounds based just on how you score a boxing fight but man like that banana peel that thought that Francis going to slip on never came. And Tyson looked tired. Tyson looked tired. I thought a huge cardio advantage for Tyson Fury. He's going to outlast him. He didn't, as little as I felt like Francis did near the end of the fight,

it's not like Fury just like dominated those rounds and started putting it on Francis. He just did more to get ahead. And that's why he won and that's fine. Tisorpeury. That's all you got to do. But I was surprised that we never saw that Tyson Fury that we thought was going to come out. And Francis made the most of the situation.

And who knows, if Francis poured it on a little bit more in either those last two rounds, we're telling a totally different story here. That's how close it was. It was interesting, too, because we heard it so much in the lead-up, right, of the Deonté Wilder comparisons. And it made sense to some degree, right? You big power puncher, like, that's sort of how, if you're going to win, you're going to win with the knockout, that type of thing. But, like, what's lost in that comparison is that Francis and Gunn was 270 pounds.

he's a gigantic man like he was as big as Tyson for the most part and that's always been like a big part of Tyson Fury's game right he's just like that overwhelmingly large man who sort of hangs on these guys makes them tired really drags the energy out of him and we saw tonight like inside the clinch francis was money in the clinch man he was landing all the shots in the clinch the uppercuts in particular were incredibly nasty in there and it was just i think that's one thing that maybe I overlooked, a lot of people overlooked is just that's Tyson's style with the size just being so domineering with that size. Like that was not something that was effective against Francis at all. And it was just so crazy to watch Francis look smooth in there. He looked

fast. He looked like a boxer, man. He looked like a boxer. That is not something I thought I would be saying. He started feeling himself too after the third round. When he got into the fourth around. He's dancing around. He's, he's like, he's like Fred Flintstone bowling in there. He's on the toes, just dancing. It was, it was just incredible. I've watched as this is going on, just because I can't

stop looking at it. There's a great social clip from TNT sports of Ussick's reaction to Ingano knocking down Tyson Fury. I cannot stop watching it. I cannot stop watching it. Because he's sitting there, like at the beginning of the fight, he's all goofy and happy, go lucky,

they're showing him on the broadcast. And then as you see him probably in like the seventh round, you see a look of fear in his eyes. And you see the moment when that fear came. Because he's just sitting there watching the fight like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just a matter of time, blah, blah, blah. And then and God him knocks him down and you just see Ousick like, oh my God. And he just, he's just stunned.

No reaction. Just just pure stun. And then he notices a camera on him. He's like, all right, I try to play this cool. Pretty crazy, man. What a night. What a night. So real quick, and then we'll go to the peeps.

Shaheen, we weren't sure what was going to happen with the aftermath of this. We weren't sure if his next fight was going to be an M.A. Jose and I talked about this a lot. If Francis has a good night, is he going to go to the PFL or is he going to try to make all the money he can in boxing? And basically what we said was even if Francis won that, you know, Francis is kind of a man of his word. He, you know, if he says he's going to do something, he would do it. But boy, I don't know if I don't. Well, I still believe that.

I still feel like PFL is just like, dude, go, go do what you can do. We love you. Still be an ambassador for us. Like still represent our promotion. But yeah, man, you don't need to fight for us anymore. Do you think Francis Ngano is going to fight an MMA fight ever again after what happened here tonight? So I'll answer that question, but I first want to ask you a question, Mike, because I'm curious for your perspective. because I'm still not sure what I think.

Do you think tonight was ultimately in the long run a win for the PFL? No, I don't. I mean, I get, I don't know, it's tough to say because it's tough, right? It's tough. Because like, honestly, like, I actually think it's almost like in a weird way, a bigger win for the UFC that it is the PFL. Because at any point in this broadcast. Oh, I disagree. I disagree with that.

I don't know, man. There is no, very few people. Even if you watched weigh-in shows, any kind of streaming sites. At any point this week, did you hear anybody say the PFL's name? I didn't. Not one time. I did not hear the word PFL uttered once on this broadcast. Although, to be fair, I did not hear the word UFC uttered very many times on this broadcast either.

It seemed to be very clear that they were trying to not mention UFC, which was interesting as well. I don't know, man. I don't know. I think UFC was mentioned. He is attached to the UFC. brand a lot more than he is attached to with the PFL brand and most fans' eyes right now. He just is. So while I'm not saying like the UFC is just going to steal credit for this, I think the aftermath,

especially from the boxing community when they look at Francigano, then I can say, wow, that dude who might fight for the PFL next year just went in there and beat Tyson Furia and some people's scorecards are going to be, no, the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world just did that. So that's why I don't know. Like if he goes and fights in the PFL on pay-per-view in March or April against some name and headlines pay for you and it does a million papers, then this is great. But if he doesn't fight for them, I don't know what this really does. Like it's great for growing the sport in Africa. He'll be a big part of that. He'd be a tremendous. Like the face of that is just so much bigger now than I ever thought it could be. Now with Francis what accomplished tonight. But I don't know like how big of a win this is for the people. They sure think it's a big win right now. Maybe not as much as Anthony Pettis' fight organization apparently thinks.

I don't know if you guys saw that tweet at all, but we don't need to go there because that's just absolutely the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. But I don't know if this is like a good thing or a bad thing for PFL. It's hard to gauge, Shaheen, you know? I think ultimately where I land on it is that it is a good thing for the PFL strictly because they are now attached to Francis and Ghanu. And that is what everybody is going to want to be if you're in combat sports over the next six months, year, however long this last. You want to be attached to, God, what a photo. I'm sorry, Jose's showing these photos right now. It's just crazy.

You want to be attached to Francis and Gano, right? Like if you want to be in the Francis and Gano business, even tangentially, in the PFL, for MNMA purposes, are the exclusive home of Francis and Gano. And I think that in and of itself is a win for them, even if he never actually fights in their cage. because then you have this guy that you can trot out to your events, that you can trot out, say, hey, he's a member of the executive staff, PFL Africa, all of this, just to be able to be attached to him, I think is a win. I don't know, though, that I agree with you in that saying UFC was a winner tonight. To me, the UFC was a loser tonight, if only because you could have been part of this.

Think about how much money the UFC would have made from this and how much bigger this would have been if the UFC was attached because we can crap on the UFC all we want. One thing they're very good at is getting behind a thing, right? Getting behind an event, a fighter, whatever, in propelling that fighter event, whatever you want to say into the stratosphere, into something very, very big that would have been much bigger. Can you imagine if throughout the lead up to this, it was UFC backed, you had Dana White out there doing press conferences like he was from Maymac. You had the whole ESPN machine working in concert with UFC to make this as big as possible. We were talking about it in the lead up on the preview show that this didn't feel as big

as maybe we anticipated it would be. And there was a lot of factors that went to that. But it just ultimately, like, it felt like the promotion for this was somewhat of a dud and that it just, there wasn't the eyeballs that we anticipated there would be. If the UFC had been behind this, I don't think we would have been saying that. And I think that it would have just, again, made astronomically more money. Maybe Francis himself doesn't make more money. He probably doesn't.

He certainly made more tonight than he would have if the UFC was attached. But I think the UFC loses because you could have been in this business. You could have been the facilitators of all of this. And then after Francis Ngon, who has this legendary once in a lifetime performance, you could have been in a White on that post-white press conference saying, yeah, not only do we have the number one heavyweight in MMA, we have the number one heavyweight in boxing, and you all know that he beat Tyson Fury.

You know no one would have loved that victory lap more than Dana White. To me, the UFC objectively is a loser tonight because you could have just been a part of this if you had some wiggle room in you, but you just didn't. You make a good point. And they could have had a very good point. They could have had him fight John Jones after. The John Jones fight would have still been on the table. God. Can you imagine a way to fight now?

You imagine. You imagine a world where Francis Ngano does what he does tonight and then immediately pivots into a John Jones super fight. that would have broken McGregor Nermig of Madoff for the highest selling pay review of all time. Like the momentum

leading into that would have been unlike anything we have seen. Can we edit out me saying that the UFC won tonight? Can we edit that? Yeah, yeah. That's not going to post.

They won. The UFC won for like an hour and a half just because they're going to call them UFC fighter. But other than that, they didn't win. But from that perspective. So yeah,

I still don't know if the PFL won very much here. in a lot of respects outside of like people trying to jump on Francis's back and fighters asking the PFL hey Francis got to box Tyson now are you going to let me go a box some boxer out there so that's going to be kind of a weird scene too but go ahead the the UFC obviously I just want to add this the UFC could have had its cake and eating it to instead it threw the cake into the road or into the track whatever you want to say kick said looked at this clearly appealing cake and said, nope, no, thank you. Don't want to have, don't even want to nibble anymore. We've had our,

we've had our slice of this cake. We've gotten everything we can add a bit. They could have had both. They really could have had both. Not only did that, not only did they do that, they took that cake, slapped it over to the side, stomped on it a bunch, like really just went on and like it was just grapes and you were stomping on it for wine. Like they really stomped on it a bunch. And then they brought out like a smaller cake and then tried to convince you that this was the cake all along. Like, this is the better cake. Yes. The cake is a lie.

The cake's a lie. Maybe, uh, we'll see how PFL sort of, how can they build upon this? This is a very curious thing here. How are they able to build upon this? They've got so many things wrong. They have like, this is a layup. This is a slam dunk. If you screw this up, I mean, there's just no hope at this point.

Francis has gave you a gift. You just got to take that gift. and do something with it. And I don't know how much easier the man can make it for you. So please do something capitalize on this PFL. Let's make this conversation somewhat interesting. Please, in the MMA space, but you have to do something with it. You can't just sit here and let Francis do it all.

You have to do something with this. Do something compelling. All right? Maybe make a promise that your next card is not going to be 14 hours long. Do something. Do something. Make Francis and Ghana the host of the pay-per-view. Like he should be in there as like the special guest host of the pay-per-view.

Get him as part of that next pay-per-view in November. Make him a part of it. Make him the king of it. I don't care. But do something. Please capitalize on this. Holy cow. I see one comment.

I really hope this is who the F is PFL. And then another one saying that PFL is just going to create a graphic. And that's it. That's all they're going to do. And I'm like, oh, that'd be. Real missed opportunity tonight. with the lack of smart cage references. No smart cage references on the broadcast,

and that's a real, real shame. Yep. Crazy. God, these photos. These photos are unreal, man. Sheesh, man. This is so, I mean, this is just so ridiculous. I can't believe it.

I'm probably saying a lot of really, I've said, I even know I've said a few dumb things today, but I don't care. This is just a night of such weird things. And just adding to this. Weird year. Thanks for the support, Jose. Love you too. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide,

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And hustled all those wishless topping toys. So plush. Our buyers have got you covered. Marshall's. We get the deals. You gift for good stuff. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cajolla of the FACC that I just finished that I'm energize all the time?

Mm, it's the ensemble. The format standard and mini, regrouped, what abem? And, and the embellage, too beau, who is practically pre to donate? And I know that I'd love these Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez.

I'm just the most most ensemble, the Cado of the Feds Cajorahs Cajor Day, where Cepora Collection, and other, part of Vite. Procurre you, Corma Stanned Art and Mini, Let's hear from you guys. Let's hear from you guys. Let's see what the peeps have to say. We'll take a few a few questions some comments if you will. So I've been again this is the this is the truck I have been trying to keep up with the amount of content coming in right now

we have almost 5,500 people watching and the comment section is going so fast. I've tried to find the questions and things a lot of people are just saying a lot of the same things but I'm going to try and I'll get to the ones that like they answered first. Let me ask you, Jose. Yeah. Let me ask you, because I have not been able to monitor the comments as we've been doing this. What do the people think in terms of the scorecard? Oh, I'm assuming I'm saying lots of robbery.

Wonder what you, uh, wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder. In a game of Punchfist, Francis won. I love the pride rule thing. He won't. He won't my pride rules. That's how I judge a fight ultimately is if you look at these two guys after the fight, it's like, who would you rather be? You would much rather be, Francis.

Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. Is that probably, is that frankly, like, knockdown aside? Like, even including the knockdown. Is that the most stunning fact of all of this? The fact that Tyson Fury didn't really land a good shot on Francis throughout 10 rounds? He landed a few. You just have to watch him in slow motion.

Because when we were watching the fight live, Mike and I with a watchlong, there were a lot. I'm like, I don't know if he landed too much. And they only showed the slow motion replays, Fury had a couple sneaky shots in there. I think it like... But we're saying sneaky. Like, the fact that he didn't land like a punch that really took your breath away on Francis. Correct.

He came out. Fury came out and like a... He just sprinted across the ring and punched Francis. This was my highlight. This was my highlight of the night. I don't know about you. Superman Punch? That was good. Me and Mike when we were watching,

We just like freak. I did this whole spiel at the beginning where it's like, I don't show emotion when I watched fights and then when Francis threw a super ramp punch, I'm like, all right, I'm here for it. I knew you were going to do it. I knew it was going to happen.

If something crazy was going to happen, I knew you were going to react. And gone to won by a lot. I don't know about that. Fury's best show is an elbow and a body lock take down. Here's a very strange part of this fight, Cheyenne.

Very strange part of this fight. Round two, when Francis lands that little sneaky upper cut that cuts Fury open, Fury switches stances, and that was the best he looked the entire fight, was when he switched stances. And you could see it in Francis's face, like,

whoa, we weren't ready for this. Like, you could see the kind of the look of concern on his face, like, yeah, we weren't prepared for Tyson Fury to switch stances and fight out of this position, basically fight Southpaw. And it was his best round of the whole fight. Like, he looked the best

in that, like, 90 seconds when he switched dances, and he never did it again. He never did it again. I thought that was really, really weird. Also, one thing, too, if Tyson vury gets a point deducted from him for that elbow. Yep. The elbow, yeah. Francis wins this fight on all the cards.

Yep. But if you watch the co-main events, there was like 18 fouls on that one and not one point it was taken. It was all from the same side. And not a single point was taken. Always cheating and fighting. That is one thing I think that all of us missed. Like, obviously a lot of people missed a lot of things. when we were talking about this fight in the lead-up.

That's one thing that I didn't hear anybody really mentioned that we probably should have. And it's a miss by all of us, is that Francis Ngano has an outrageous chin for an MMA fighter. Who said it? Mike, who said it? You did. We have never really seen him hurt.

And like that you saw it translate tonight. Like, Duke could take a punch. And that's a very important thing in a punching contest. It's a lot of, it's a lot of complaining about Fury. Well, like lately. to be it's been a pretty 50-50 but it's now it's pretty heavy for francis what do we think about yeah i'll press mufflets i i hope i just hope people i hope people look back on this fight positively and just focus on the francis stood well thing i i don't want to harp on the scoring

anymore but just like if your takeaway from tonight's fight was just like oh boxing scoring sucks and the wrong man won it's like you're you're just not going to enjoy life you're not enjoying you're not enjoying life, just enjoy what you saw. You saw a great fight. Let me speak more broadly. If you base your combat sports enjoying experience on whether the fighter you liked or were rooting for one, you are not enjoying, you're just not enjoying things the right way. Like, especially in combat sports. Like I understand like team sports, you just want to always see your team win.

That's fine. I'm the same way. If I, you know, like the Toronto Raptors lose by one point, I don't go like, oh, they had it. If they played a great game, I go like, F these guys. Why did they miss those two free throws like in the third quarter? But in combat sports, you're always going to have results that just don't go the way you necessarily want them to go. And I didn't have a rooting interest either way, to be honest. I guess maybe slightly more for Francis just because it would have been fun and because Francis and Emmy fighter and where I'm a fighting.

But you should really just, you really got to just appreciate the performance you saw. So like that's why She and I love to how just enthusiastic you were at the beginning of the show and really throughout the show about like how crazy this was. That is the takeaway here. not what's what's what happened to the scoring that's not the takeaway this fight was so fun to watch so awesome francis looked great and he's good and he'll probably look great in the future so please god do not dwell in the scoring oh yeah that's yeah none of it matters story this is this is the climax of the francis and gano movie that will inevitably been made because it has to be because this is the most unlikely thing in a unlikely career full of unlikely things that man picked up gloves at age

27 and started fighting in MMA. Tyson Fury is 35 year old now. And so friends of the guy who has been doing this for like seven years compared to like, I don't know, whatever. What kind of stupid Scott Steiner math do you want to throw in there? Like, that's crazy, man. This is crazy, right?

Like, this is who started this at 27. And he's doing this right now. This is Rocky one. This is Rocky one. Rocky Belboa. I don't know if you guys know this. A lot of people are like, Rocky didn't beat Apollo Creed in the first one. He lost a close fight.

He lost a close fight. This is what this was. But Rocky was the big winner. Everyone cared about Rocky. That's exactly what this is in a weird context. Brian Campbell on BTL said something that made me laugh, but it's so true. He quoted from White Men Can't Jump, the classic from 1992, Rosie Perez playing Gloria Clemente, saying to Billy Hoyle, quote, Sometimes when you win, you really lose.

And sometimes when you lose, you really win. And sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie. And sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Maybe true words have never been spoken after what we just saw in Saudi Arabia. But Francis still won. Like he didn't, he made not have won the fight. But who cares? This is the Francis and Ghanu show.

He happened. I love the Rocky. Yeah. I love the Rocky comparison. Because if Rocky happened in real life, I guess it would just be people on Twitter, like, bitching about like, oh, my God. Rocky was robbed I hate I hate this fight I hate this fight I hate boxing Rocky was rock Apollo Creed sucks Apollo Creed got dominate Paul could got dominated bro Paul like I hate I hate this fight like this is where we are is this is where

we are as a combat sports society that we're just gonna complain about this stuff this was awesome this this fight was great there's other reason there's other reasons to complain about this event but not that not the main event the main event was great we are not getting a ton of questions it's mostly just people arguing in the comment section, but I'm digging for a few. A lot of people just happy. Honestly, there's a lot of people that are just happy Francis got paid. That seems to be another big theme of the live chat.

Yeah. We thought he got paid a lot heading into this. The amount of money he's going to be coming out of this is way better. It's so much better. Here's an interesting. Go ahead. Just quickly with you guys. MMA or boxing?

What do you think the next time we see, for instance, are going to fight in a human being? What do you anticipate it being? Because I'm going to say it's boxing, man. I think the next time we see this team fight is boxing. Because, like, you can go to fight anti-delisia, the PFL, or whoever I can't tell you who the PFL heavyweight finalists are right now.

And I'm sure no one on this stream could actually tell me either. So, like, you could have him fight those guys, but not nearly as many people are going to care as if he fights Deonté Wilder. I mean, let me see. There's been, yeah, This has been brought up a lot Francis versus Wilder in the comment section I want that fight

I think Wilder's about to fight Andrew Dsora like there's so like Francis against any of those guys I think Francis is any of them I think France Wilder is going to fight Ruiz or Joshua and I would like the winner to fight Francis and Gano I do agree with you Mike Francis is a man

of his word I think he does fight in MMA next I never I never I never anticipated this. I never anticipated this comment out of my head, but like Francis would probably fuck up Anthony Joshua. Maybe. I was just going to ask you that.

I was literally just going to ask you that. If this version of Francigano fought Anthony Joshua tonight, would he have won? Yes. Yes. I think you would have. Have you watched Anthony lately? Because he has not been impressive in anything that he's done.

It's interesting because Anthony Joshua just very poorly against shorter men. That seems to be he just can't figure it out and he does very well against tall men. I would love to see the fight. That would answer a lot of questions for me for both men, like boxing-wise.

But it also depends. Because when Joshua changed camps, he completely changed his approach to fight and he just doesn't look the same. That's what I'm saying. Like this present-day version of Joshua is... I think he's training with Canella's guy now, too. So I don't know.

I'm going to tell you. Washes him. Francis is 37 years old and supposed to have won that fight. Canella Alvarez shocked by the decision. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were. There were a lot of people who thought, uh, who thought Francis won. A lot of fighters who were in the crowd. Louis, UFC lost out in this whole comic.

Yeah. I was wrong. That was the dumbest thing I may have ever said on this channel. Francis versus Usik is the fight to make. I mean, I'd watch it. Down the road. Yeah. I'd watch it.

it but I think the belts are the big thing too Francis rematch Francis gets the winner of yeah that's what I said in the preview show yeah because it because like I said in the in the in the in the watch long party boxing is so different from MMA like there's promoters there's television rights there's arenas there's cities the Usig Fury thing is already signed they just need to figure out where and when so get through that and then the winner can fight Francis Does this make

This is for everybody You included Ozax This is something we never really got to discuss Was the result Did the result of this fight Make Fury Usoc more intriguing to you or less intriguing 100% more intriguing for me Me too 100% for me as well

Really? I feel less Really? I think I already I already felt like that was competitive before this Oh I didn't I didn't think it was going to be competitive. I truly thought Fury was going to walk Usik because Usik is not healthy at all, regardless of what he says. If they push it more or Fury fights this or Usik fights this fear, I think Usik could very easily win. And then that's a whole other story for the Ukraine. It's just why, like I'm so much more interested in that fight now.

I mean, that fight, I'll tell you what, that fight ain't happened in December. No, hell no. No, it is. Oh, no. I cannot believe that Usik said December 23rd, because like two weeks ago, he said that I would like more time. I'll fight, but if I fight on the 23rd, I'll be 80% healthy. I'm like, fight in February then, bro. Whatever. Anyway.

It could have been a really good night for Ussick then. This actually might have worked on great for him. Now he could fight in a few months. This is good for heavyway boxing too, because now we could get an undisputed heavyweight champion. Anyway, question for or comment about MMA stuff. Dana will offer him mega money to come back,

reclaim the title, and allow him to be able to box. Dana wants a promotion money. I you have C hell no this would be that man is beyond their paycheck man can you imagine

if Dana like shows up at a press conference and just like says you know what we love to have him back we're gonna start hunter's gonna talk to his team like tomorrow can you imagine if he just backs just takes a back step to all of this and just gives in

so they could try to make this John Jones fight like it would really be the greatest victory a fighter has ever achieved not just because of Tyson fury and everything that he accomplished here but to get Dana White to like unstubborn himself for just a brief moment would be absolutely fascinating it really would be holy crap you have seen his francis more than he did him yep I'll tell you another big loser this and Hank Hill just nailed it UFC because now you're going to have this Tom Aspinall Sergei Pavlovich thing cool that's a fine fight I'm not upset about that.

But then you're going to have John Jones versus Steepa next year. And they're going to try to tell you that's for the number one heavyweight in the world. In the shadow of this. And if Francis had come out here and gotten absolutely washed and knocked out, people would have bought it, hook line and sinker. I think it's going to be a lot tougher to sell. This is for the best heavyweight in the world after watching what we just watch. Can we put Francis back at the top of the NBA rankings?

Heavyweight rankings? We can, right? I mean, we have pretty strict rules that you have to compete in MMA. But what are rules, really? I mean, I'm a rules rule guy. Hold on. We specifically wrote the rules. I haven't, I don't have them in front of me.

Does it say that you have to fight MMA or just that you have to fight? I want to say we are careful. I mean, we haven't been giving Cyborg credit for her boxing matches, whatever those are. So we'll have to talk about this. We'll have to talk about this because it's going to feel. weird if and I kind of asked this question before that John Jones we don't know he might be out for update months probably sooner but that's like worst case scenario it'd be weird having him at the top if you just you know if people decide to keep him there after whatever happens with

pavlovich and Aspinall it'd feel less weird to have Francis back on top that's all I'm saying it's just less weird to put him back there so I don't know people you tell us in the comments should we put Francis back number one in the AK I'm trying to keep over the comments as it is don't tell so many question for A.K. specifically because he's our expert in this field. It's in all capitals with four or five exclamation question marks. I don't want to say this. I know what it's going to be.

Oh, this is a great question. Oh, Calil Lambert, Inganu versus winner of Henan Federa and Dennis Goltzub. There we go. Somebody finally came up with the names of the PFL finals. Thank you, Callum. You're a true fan. You're a true fan. Yes, in boxing, though, inbox.

I'm all in on PFL, whatever. your business model was whatever plans you had for frances if they didn't involve boxing my friends they involve boxing now this is the way we just want to see him back in the ring with the big gloves 10 rounds 12 rounds whatever it is make a belt the inaugural pfl boxing heavyweight champion boom illustrious an illustrious title put that on the line next and haven't gone to face one of those guys and there you go easy money i'm in i'm all in all uh i have a question for shaheen and ak because we talked about it on the watch along party and there's not a of questions coming in right now just more of debating john jones and francis is the argument for

best boxer and mma now done does it ends with francis the default the default answer right i mean it might have that's what i said holly home though right the default answer was holly home though right for the longest time it was always holly or max sean woodson has declared himself the best boxer for the last several years like it's all whole thing i think i think i think shon strickland maybe you could have thrown into that debate before tonight because he was obviously very impressive with his but i mean we just watched one you former ufc fighter basically beat tyson fury in a boxing match so yeah i i think the debate is probably over for right now yeah yeah and it's just again it's just fun to say it's a fun thing to say we were that that was brought up a few times in the watch long party i think it's a good question

this is a fight a boxing match that we've thrown a lot of names around i don't know how much you follow boxing uh you three I'm all in on this fight. I am so here for this fight over any of the other days you guys said. That is huge. That would decimate records overseas. So for people who are listening in the podcast, this man is suggesting to Jai versus Zengano.

And I don't hate that. I am doing right now. He just won. He just won. He just won. Is he have like a mandatory next up? I don't think so because he's not a chance. I just mean like he's an he's an interim champion champion yeah he's an interim champion I mean the biggest fight if they're trying to draw eyeballs worldwide to a fight fury Zhang would be the biggest fight to make because just China itself is so massive they're so big for Zhang Zhang and Ganu I'm here for it while the rest of the heavyweight division fights each other I love this fight so much and I did not think about it till right now look at all these options then someone said

I thought they meant Zhang Wei, no, Zhang Jeele, who has, he has called, he said he wanted to fight Fury after he did choice. He did say post-fight. Obviously, he called for Fire Fury. I don't know how close he was to that. Man, that's a great suggestion. Whoever, whoever gets the suggestion, ought no point to you, sir. On to the next one, matchmaking point. That is phenomenal.

That's smart. That's really smart. I'm going to reiterate this again because there's been a few questions surrounding it. Where's the post-fight press conference? Top rank has canceled it. They have obviously not explained why, or I haven't learned why. but that's happening. I will leave it.

I will pin a comment in the chat. This is all just the funny as I've ever seen. This is so fun. I think we know I. It's so great. It's just great. We have seen so many iterations of this night since 2017, right? Since May Mac sort of created whatever this, this template is for this, since 2017, how many different versions of this?

Bad and Good have we seen. We've seen Mike Perry fight professional boxers. Boxes. We've seen Ben Asker. We've seen all these dudes try this. Not one of them has come close to even being as interesting and entertaining and successful as something like this, man. Like this is, or at least on the MMA side, like the actual MAA athlete going in there doing it. Like, this is just crazy. Anything else? I mean, there's a ton that it's coming through. I think this individual means Andrew Ruiz, but he could also mean Luis Ortiz. I think he just combined to

boxers into one nightmare from alimation Andy Ruiz can be See Andrew This is supposed to Now like Yeah

All of this is more interesting to me Than if you're just fighting Whoever the UFC releases From their heavy rate roster in the UFC In the PFL picks up Like I just want to

Give me Francis versus Andy Ruiz Give me him for a while They're Zhang all of these Like these I'm so in on this now Also this is not how boxing works Francis first Wilder Colvaine

Fura 16 December 20 No I I did not think we would be discussing so many potential boxing matchups for Francis and Ghanu heading into this after. Because I think no matter how he lost, except for in this case where it was, again, a very close split decision where you could argue he won, if he had lost a clear decision, if he had gotten knocked out, you know, anything like that,

I think we would have been kind of like, well, France should bounce back by, you know, doing M.M.A. again, and then we can talk about boxing. We would not be throwing out a lot of these names that we brought up, But that's how quickly things can change in one night, man, one performance. The whole narrative just completely shifted. I am trying to get this up on the screen one second. My computer is red hot from a live chat or a live thing and this. If it comes up, we have.

Oh, no. Very quickly, Jose, I'll say someone's asking was Brandon. Okay, go ahead. Oh, Francis's comment. Francis said Quote Tyson should say thank you to those two judges Because I assume he says he didn't win this fight Because the actual tweet says because I didn't win this fight

But or I think he means like I didn't win this fight because of the two judges Yeah I think it means yeah he like officially didn't win this fight maybe I don't know Yeah yeah yeah the wording is we know what he means we know we know what he means though We know what he means I get the sentiment I like the sentiment I like the judge yeah love it I want to read the comment from Brandon in QFG who's always on our chats. Was it Derek Lewis that actually fumbled a bag

by not the NFL and fighting France? 100%. He could box him. That could have been his. FFL could have done a boxing match between France and Ghanu and Derek Lewis and just raked in the clicks, raked in the hopefully some pay-per-view money.

I assume they throw that in pay-per-view. Derek Lewis and I'm sure he's doing fine in the UFC. I know he got a good deal, but boy, he could have made some real dime with a Francis and Gano boxing match, I think. Imagine Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis, now he used to go fight. Now he used to go fight Jilton Almeida in Brazil on Saturday.

What a... Oh, boy. What a world. Maybe he wins. A freaking world. Maybe he wins. I mean, nothing would surprise me anymore. Derek Lewis submits Jailton Almeida in the first round.

Yep. Heavyweight title shot. There you go. I just can't. I'm so glad you brought this up, though, because I was about to say something about this. I just can't believe that. the lead up to this is all of this was was built around this who's the baddest right who's the baddest man on the planet and it felt so hollow in the lead up because obviously francis was the

baddest band because if they run into each other in an alley like we all know exactly how their engagement goes just because that's what like the ufc one sort of proved like how how this all works out if you're one dimensional in a in a fight and yet somehow this night actually did what it was supposed to. Like, we know who the baddest man on the planet is. It's Francis and Ghanu. The dude just beat the number one boxer. Like, that's crazy, man. I cannot believe this. Yes. I don't know what to say. Yes. Are we good? I think we're good. I mean, it's a lot of the same questions, yes.

Yeah. I think we're good. Jose, you're a gangster. We've been doing this for a hot minute. We've been talking quite a bit. You guys are great. What a night. Holy Spokes. Didn't think we'd be talking about this on the Postplate show, but I am happy to be proven wrong. I'm happy to eat my words.

And congratulations to you, Francis and Ghanu. You're the friggin' man. And to you, Tyson, Piri. Pretty humble in the feet. Didn't like the whole, hey, the knockdown was the shots of the back of the head thing, but that's neither here nor there. MMA gets one. We finally got into the club,

finally got accepted. for the boxing community, at least for today. Grant Sagata may not have won the fight, but he's a winner. He's a poignant winner right now. Time and Baxter ahead. Let's go. Let's make this night even better.

Let's go. Let's go. Just keep it out of the bullpen's hands. Maybe whoever's starting can go the full nine and make care of about two soon. For Jose on the production side, for AK for Sheen on Mike Kek. Good night, everybody.

Let's go!