Joe Rogan has been known to listen to a conspiracy theory or two during his day, but when it comes to anything involving the boxing match between Jake Paul and Anderson Silva, the longtime UFC commentator isn’t buying it.
In the aftermath of Paul’s unanimous decision win over former UFC middleweight champion Silva this past Saturday, the underbelly of the internet has attempted to claim the fight wasn’t legit. Specifically, there’s been a dissecting of Paul’s final-round knockdown of Silva that sealed the result on the scorecards.
Rogan, who’s watched countless combat sports fights, said he saw nothing fishy about Paul vs. Silva.
“Some people are trying to say that fight was fixed because of the knockdown,” Rogan said on a recent edition of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “I just want to explain to people this is what happened. … Anderson moved forward to Jake Paul, and Jake Paul hit him with sort of a stepping jab and caught him right on the chin. And when he caught him on the chin, Anderson Silva was falling backwards and then he leans away from the right hand, and he goes down. He was down from the punch, but it looks like the right hand doesn’t connect, but the left hand is what’s f*cking him up.
“That dude hits f*cking hard, and for anybody to say he doesn’t hit hard because he’s a YouTube star — if this guy was not a f*cking YouTube star and he was some dude who went out there and flatlined Tyron Woodley with one punch and just knocked down Anderson Silva in the f*cking eighth round … come on, son. That is legit as f*ck. Anybody that says that’s not legitimate is crazy. He cracked him.”
While many people have tried to discredit Paul and his achievement, Rogan said he’s not one to hate on what the YouTuber-turned-boxer is attempting to do.
“Dude, he can fight,” Rogan said. “Is he the best in the world? No. But is he getting better with every fight? Yes. Is he a 25-year-old guy who’s a legit athlete? Yes. If this is what he wants to do, this guy is making a f*cking insane amount of money, and he f*cking loves it. He’s beating people that everybody says he shouldn’t be in the f*cking ring with.”
For complete coverage of the card, check out MMA Junkie’s event page for Paul vs. Silva.
