Getty Joe Rogan
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan thinks it’s “crazy” for fight fans to believe that Jake Paul’s boxing win over Anderson Silva was rigged.
Paul and the former UFC middleweight champion battled inside the ring last weekend for eight rounds, and “The Problem Child” edged the scorecards via unanimous decision. It was a back-and-forth tilt, with both men finding success during the bloody contest. However, the biggest moment of the match came during the final frame when Paul knocked down Silva, cementing himself as the winner.
Paul improved his professional boxing record to 6-0, but some in the combat sports world haven’t accepted that The Problem Child defeated an MMA icon fair and square.
For example, some have called into question the legitimacy of Paul’s knockdown. A clip went viral featuring a certain camera angle of the sequence that sat Silva down. From the angle, it appears that Paul’s right hand doesn’t land on The Spider, leading skeptics to call hogwash on the knockdown and further, them disregarding the fight as a whole.
However, other camera angles show the punch landing. And if a fight fan watched the Showtime PPV match in its entirety, they would have seen Paul and Silva bloody and bruise each other in an eight-round war.
Rogan Called Paul vs. Silva ‘Legit as F***,’ Said Deniers Are ‘Crazy’
And one person who isn’t buying the fixed-fight allegations is Rogan. During a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Rogan gave his take on Paul’s win over Silva, as well as on those who are questioning the match’s integrity.
“Some people are trying to say that fight was fixed because of the knockdown,” Rogan said (h/t MMA Fighting). “I just want to explain to people this is what happened … Anderson moved forward to Jake Paul and Jake Paul hit him with a 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 f***** him up.
“That dude hits f****** hard and for anybody to say he doesn’t hit hard because he’s a YouTube Star — if this guy was not a f****** 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****** eighth round … Come on, son. That is legit as f***. Anybody that says that’s not legitimate is crazy. He cracked him.”
Rogan Continued With His Take on Paul
Rogan continued, praising The Problem Child” as someone who “can fight.”
“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****** insane amount of money and he f****** loves it. He’s beating people that everybody says he shouldn’t be the f****** ring with.”