Two of Dana White’s enemies have fallen at the fists of Anthony Joshua.
Francis Ngannou was able to explore his boxing ambitions after leaving the UFC in early 2023. He has since entered the ring twice, with his most recent outing concluding in a devastating way.
After giving Tyson Fury all that he could handle in his pro boxing debut, Ngannou was viciously knocked out by Joshua in 2024.
Jake Paul was also finished by Joshua just last December, but White believes the Cleveland native deserves some praise for avoiding the kind of KO that Ngannou suffered against ‘AJ’.
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Dana White credits Jake Paul for avoiding KO punch that Anthony Joshua slept Francis Ngannou with
Paul did not escape unscathed from his controversial boxing match with Joshua, which streamed live on Netflix.
He was criticized for his approach to the fight, as he did what he could to avoid engaging with the former two-time unified world heavyweight champion. But he was unable to evade punches for the whole fight, with Joshua breaking Paul’s jaw with a right hand in round six.
While he left the ring with some severe damage, Paul stayed conscious throughout his match with ‘AJ’, and White recently pointed out that the same cannot be said for Ngannou.
“Listen, Jake Paul’s doing his thing,” White said during an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “The guy has obviously made a lot of money, and people have been interested.
“He plays the heel perfectly. If you hate what he’s doing and you hate all the stuff about him, you hate him so bad that you tune in to see him get knocked out.
“And I’ll tell you this, if you look at what AJ did to Francis Ngannou, right, and Jake — it was a terrible fight…did everything he could to avoid a fight — but once he got hit with that shot…AJ didn’t knock him out, and he definitely didn’t knock him out the way he knocked Francis out.
“If I give Jake Paul any credit, I give him that,” he added.
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It is rare to hear the UFC president and Zuffa Boxing boss directing any sort of praise at the polarizing YouTuber-turned-boxer.
Paul has frequently targeted White and his promotion’s pay scale, leading to some heated back and forth between the pair of prominent combat sports figures.