Francis Ngannou is heading into his MMA comeback fight this October with a heavy heart. In April, Ngannou shared that his 15-month-old son Kobe passed away after a medical emergency. This heartbreaking news came just a month after Ngannou’s last fight, where he lost by knockout to Anthony Joshua in a boxing match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Francis Ngannou is preparing for his first MMA fight in nearly three years, facing Renan Ferreira at a PFL pay-per-view event on October 19. In an interview with Sky Sports Boxing, Francis Ngannou talked about how returning to training is helping him cope with his loss and how his son continues to inspire him.
Recent Fight of Francis Ngannou
The last MMA was at UFC 270 against Ciryl Gane, and in this fight, Ngannou won by a unanimous decision and retained his UFC heavyweight champion title. Then he got into a contract disagreement with the UFC, which saw him inactive for a year due to the squabbles. Finally, he was let go from the company, and that enabled him to ink a deal with PFL and face Fury and Joshua in boxing bouts. When Francis Ngannou did this in boxing, many began to ask if he would be coming back to MMA.
When his son’s death was made public, people wondered if Ngannou still had the appetite to fight at all. “It’s not that I have come close to retiring, it’s just that … you have different thoughts,” Francis Ngannou said. “You see how fragile life is. You feel you’re hurt, you feel powerless, you feel useless. You question your existence, about the importance of all of this, or life in general, but it’s not that I have considered retiring or something. It’s just that you have to deal with something that wasn’t on the landscape before.”
Legendary Fighter from Cameroon
Another angle of the narrative is the fighter’s background as a boy from a poor family in Cameroon and his journey to becoming a combat sports champion, as well as the UFC heavyweight champion in 2021. No event that he has endured in his life could have possibly prepared him for the death of his son, Kobe.
“I think it’s easy to overcome hurdles, to overcome life’s challenges when it’s just situations, all of a sudden you feel like you haven’t been able to do anything in your life, you haven’t been able to overcome anything, you feel the most vulnerable as you have ever been.”
Whether he’s fully ready or not, Ngannou has a lot to show when he fights Ferreira on October 19. Ferreira had an impressive 2023, winning a PFL heavyweight tournament and becoming a top contender for Francis Ngannou.
Let us know in the comment section what you think about Francis Ngannou’s comeback.
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