Sunday MMA Quick Hits: Joe Rogan Calls Ngannou Departure “Big Loss” for UFC

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Joe Rogan UFC
Joe Rogan Credit: Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com

Joe Rogan says what we already knew about Francis Ngannou leaving the UFC, while Greg Hardy just got knocked out again. It’s Sunday, KSW just put on a stadium show with 50,000, and the UFC… was back in the Apex. Cue sad trombone. Oh well, here’s your Sunday MMA Quick Hits!

Joe Rogan sees Francis Ngannou’s exit as a “big loss” for UFC

Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou signing with the PFL? That’s a “big loss” for the UFC, according to one of its highest-profile, longest serving employees.

Joe Rogan, longtime color commentator (and interviewer prior to that) for the company, said just that on a recent episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

“It’s a big loss in my mind, like, him going over to the PFL,” Rogan said on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience (h/t MMA Junkie). “It bums me out. I understand it. I’m happy he’s going to get paid, I’m happy he’s going to get to box, but I loved watching this guy fight in the UFC. He was a f*cking monster. He was so good, and he is so good. It’s going to be interesting. I just don’t know who they’re going to have him fight.”

No opponent — in boxing or MMA — has been announced for Ngannou as of yet.

Claressa Shields not done with MMA yet

One of the PFL’s big signings from years past, Claressa Shields, isn’t done with MMA just yet. The world champion boxer has been focusing on the “sweet science” of late, but told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this past week that she remains in talks with the league for another fight after starting her run at 1-1.

“I would like to do MMA again,” Shields said on the show (h/t MMA Fighting). “We are in talks with PFL now to try to see what the plan is, but I would like to be given the right amount of time to train and to learn the craft of MMA, to have me a solid team behind me, because I’ve just been winging it. I went to JacksonWink and I trained with them, and they were a great team. I did a lot of jiu-jitsu training, a lot of wrestling. But it just was like, you get a 30-minute session, a 45-minute session — you don’t really get like the full [experience]. Like, I go to the gym and I don’t train less than three hours for boxing, and I’ve been doing boxing for 17 years.

“So I feel like in MMA, I want to have that same kind of routine in order for me to just learn those arts, because I’m far behind the other girls, but my boxing gives me a little lift. But if I can’t be on my feet, then we have to figure out something else,” Shields continued. “So I just want to learn those arts to where it can give me a better chance at winning. I’m not afraid to do MMA. I’ve already done it. I just want to — I like to win. I like to win fights.

Greg Hardy suffers KO loss at TCL boxing event

Former UFC heavyweight Greg Hardy has hit another setback in his post-UFC career. Competing at a Team Combat League boxing event over the weekend, Hardy was knocked out by Alexander Flores, a professional boxer with an 18-3-1 record.

TCL bouts don’t count towards professional records, so Hardy remains 2-0 as a boxer, and is 2-1 in Team Combat League. But the loss follows another rough KO defeat Hardy suffered in BKFC earlier this year.

KSW Colosseum 2 had this crazy knockout from bottom

Striking off your back is not supposed to work, right? We did a full story on this that you can read, but it’s worth a second look. Kudos to former boxer Krzysztof Głowacki for pulling off the move of the weekend.

You get an Apex show and YOU get an Apex show, and…

There are no words, so we’ll finish with this:

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