Israel Adesanya, the former UFC middleweight champion, emphasized that Francis Ngannou wasn't allowed to win against Tyson Fury to please the "bureaucrats in boxing." Adesanya shared his thoughts following his own unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September, after which he decided to take a voluntary break from competition.

Recalling Ngannou's boxing debut against Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Adesanya, who walked with Ngannou to the ring, expressed his belief that Ngannou had won the fight. Despite one judge scoring the fight in favor of Fury, Adesanya asserted that those present at the arena and even the fighters themselves could sense who truly won.

Adesanya expressed wariness of the judges in boxing, stating, "I just knew boxing gonna boxing. Not saying MMA doesn’t have it as well, but imagine … I’ve been there before, and I can relate, so I just knew. I wasn’t confident in the judges because I knew for a guy with zero boxing fights to come in there in his debut boxing fight, not even as an amateur, and beat the reigning lineal champion, the bureaucrats in boxing would not like that."