Francis Ngannou made a triumphant return to blended martial arts with a first-round knockout of Renan Ferreira in Riyadh.
After his high-profile transition to boxing with heavyweight bouts towards Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, the 38-year-old Cameroonian returned to the cage for the Skilled Fighters League (PFL) occasion dubbed “Battle Of The Giants”.
After some early heavy kicks from each fighters Ngannou, who hadn’t had a blended martial arts battle since January 2022, took the battle to the mat and ultimately landed a sequence of bludgeoning punches to finish Ferreira with 88 seconds left within the first spherical.
A tearful Ngannou devoted his victory to the reminiscence of his 15-month-old son, Kobe, whose demise was introduced in April of this yr.
“I only did this fight because of him,” Ngannou stated. “I wanted to fight for him… I hope they can remember his name, because without Kobe, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
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Francis Ngannou advised the MMA Membership Podcast that he desires to battle on in his son’s reminiscence following 15-month-old Kobe’s demise earlier this yr. Warning: This video covers themes that some viewers could discover distressing.
The occasion broke with the PFL’s normal format of an everyday season and play-offs to placed on a sequence of “super fights” with belts at stake as Ngannou made his return to the game the place he made his title after a foray into the world of boxing.
Ngannou’s rise from childhood poverty in Cameroon to the head of blended martial arts, the place he gained the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021, made him a massively fashionable determine and one of the sought-after free brokers in fight sports activities when his UFC contract expired.
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Francis Ngannou says he felt like he fought Anthony Joshua together with his ‘hand-tied’ and divulges the names he desires to battle when he returns to boxing.
He went on to participate in profitable boxing matches towards British heavyweights Fury and Joshua, each of which he misplaced, and his signing was an enormous coup for the PFL in its battle to compete with the UFC.
Within the night’s co-main occasion for the PFL Tremendous Fights ladies’s featherweight belt, Brazilians Cris Cyborg and Larissa Pacheco went to struggle over 5 rounds, with the vastly skilled Cyborg rising victorious through unanimous determination.
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