After opening up on the difficult loss of his son, Francis Ngannou has announced his return to MMA later this year as he looks to use the tragedy as his motivation for the future.
Francis Ngannou To Fight Renan Ferreira On Return To MMA
Francis Ngannou hasn’t fought in the MMA for over two years now, with his last bout in the Octagon coming against Ciryl Gane in January 2022.
Since his heavyweight title bout against Gane, Ngannou has turned to boxing where his fighting record took a slight dip with losses to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua – with AJ’s knockout enough for Ngannou to call it quits in the boxing world earlier this year.
Just one month after the Joshua fight, Ngannou tragically lost his 15-month-old son Kobe, which prompted the 37-year-old to retire from fighting altogether during a difficult period.
However four months after the loss of his son, Ngannou has announced he will come out of retirement this year as the former heavyweight champ wants to ‘honour Kobe’s memory’.
“This is not a great moment for me. I need some activities. I need to stay active to be in a zone that I belong to. I also need to keep it going, to fight for my boy, for Kobe.
Francis Ngannou breaks down after speaking about how his sons passing has affected him:
“What’s the point in fighting, if I end up not being able to fight for the only person I can fight for.” 💔
🎥 YT / Diary of a CEO pic.twitter.com/tsnCEGqpTd
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) August 8, 2024
“The past few months hasn’t been the easiest. I think it has been by far my hardest [moment] in life. I lost my son. For some time, I felt like I didn’t even have to do this or questioning about if I should do it or fight again.
“But I want to do something good in his memory. Not to be the reason for me to quit but to be motivation and also to fight for him.”
All my life I've fought for a lot of different purposes and on October 19th I'm going to fight for a greater purpose.
#battleofgiants #braceforimpact pic.twitter.com/gM3Gk3z1Ro
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) August 8, 2024
Ngannou of course has one of the most formidable records in the UFC (17-3-0) and his return to the ring could pose a huge problem to other fighters in his division.
First up for Ngannou on his return will be Renan Ferreira (13-3-0), with the two doing battle in Saudi Arabia on October 19th for the Professional Fighters League Super Fight belt.
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