Dana White: Francis Ngannou Going 10 Rounds with Tyson Fury is ‘Unbelievable’

Even Dana White had to acknowledge the sheer shock of Francis Ngannou’s performance against Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 28.

Ngannou was a massive underdog going into his boxing debut, a non-title clash against World Boxing Council heavyweight champ Tyson Fury. Fight odds aside, Ngannou’s career was also under the keen scrutiny of detractors who believed the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ “fumbled the bag” by exiting the promotion over contract disputes earlier this year.

However, “The Predator” emerged as the biggest winner of the night, knocking Fury down en-route to a controversial split decision loss for which he reportedly earned upwards of $10 million.

White has previously not had much praise for Ngannou, hinting that the Cameroonian was mistaken in thinking that he had a McGregor-Mayweather-esque booking at hand. However, even the UFC head honcho couldn’t help but acknowledge the caliber of the near upset by Ngannou during an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.’s ”Triggered" podcast.

“I didn’t see the fight, but the fact that he went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury is crazy. He just went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury. Conor [McGregor] made it 9 or 10 with Floyd. Anthony Pettis just beat Roy Jones Jr. – I know Roy is friggin’ 60 years old or whatever. But I don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s crazy. I didn’t see the fight, but the fact that he went 10 rounds is unbelievable.”

White isn’t concerned that Ngannou’s success will impact the UFC.

“I don’t care,” he said. “Listen, these guys, at some point, everybody is going to move on. Everybody has to do what’s right for them and make money for their families, so whatever they’ve got to do, they’ve got to do.”

When Trump Jr. brought up the topic of corrupt boxing decisions, White once again reiterated his stance on how the sport isn’t viable as a profitable business, which is why he stays as far from it as possible.

“It’s not even the corruption – you can’t build a business off it,” White said. “The key to having something is building a business. When you talk about the NFL, the NBA, MLB, they took football, basketball and baseball and created a business out of it. That’s what we did with fighting, and it just can’t be done with boxing. It’s too crazy.”