Joe Rogan has suggested he reckons the final bell was run early in last night's Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk fight, having shared footage on social media.
Usyk beat Joshua via unanimous decision yesterday to a crowd of 66,267 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - in turn claiming the IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
After the fight, Rogan took to Instagram to comment on the action - having clocked what he believes was an early bell.
He reposted footage from another Instagrammer, who had written: "Great fight. @usykaa performed brilliantly. As I saw on @frankboxingcoach of you count down the seconds you can see they rang the bell 5 seconds early? Was it to save AJ? Very strange?"
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Pondering the claims, the podcaster asked his followers: "Did they really ring the bell for the last round early?"
And it wasn't just Rogan who thought the bell was rung early, with many others saying the same thing over on Twitter.
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One person said: "Great fight and well deserved victory for Usyk, but why was the bell rung 5 seconds early? #boxing #JoshuaUsyk."
Someone else wrote: "Lmao they rung the final bell early to save AJ. So blatant #JoshuaUsyk."
A third added: "They really rang the bell early to save Anthony Joshua. Watch the clock.. at least 5 seconds were still remaining."
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A fourth commented: "Did you notice that the bell rang 5 seconds earlier in the last round to save Joshua? In my opinion, Joshua would have been knocked out if the bell had not saved him in the last round. I am still shocked by Usyk performance! Well done man, you really deserve it."
LADbible has contacted Matchroom Boxing for comment.
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Speaking to Sky Sports after the fight, Usyk said his trainer had urged him not to knock Joshua out.
He said: "I had no objective to knock him out because my trainer, in my corner, pushed me not to do that.
"In the beginning I hit him hard and tried to knock him out.
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"But then my trainer said: 'Just stop, and do your job'."
He said that fans didn't see 'the best Usyk', vowing that he could be 'much better'.
Reflecting on becoming the third boxer ever to become a world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, Usyk added: "This means a lot to me.
"The fight went exactly the way I expected it to go.
"There were a couple of moments where Anthony pushed me hard. But nothing special."
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn suggested AJ may have suffered a broken eye socket, and would need to go to hospital.
"I don't know if he has broken his eye socket, it doesn't look great," he said.
"He said he couldn't see after the ninth round, obviously he was getting tagged a lot as well."
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: SPORT, News, joe rogan, Anthony Joshua