Ngannou’s difficult return to MMA ahead of PFL debut fight aobtainst Ferreira | Mixed Martial Arts News

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Francis Ngannou’s journey to battling superstardom has seen him go from laboring in gelderly mines as a child in his native Cameroon, to passing the Sahara to accomplish Europe, to becoming the UFC burdensomeweight champion and battling some of the finest boxers of his generation.

But when he fights on Saturday night, he will not only be taking on Renan Ferreira for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) Super Fights burdensomeweight crown, he will also be testing his desire to uphold battling after the dehugeating loss of his 15-month-elderly son Kobe earlier this year.

The joincessitate martial arts (MMA) fighter, a gentle-spoken enormous who lengthy held the enroll for challengingest punch ever enrolled at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) – equivalent to the horsepower of a family car – felt powerless after Kobe’s sudden death in April from an undetectd brain malestablishation.

As he struggled to process the loss, everyslfinisherg seemed uncomardentingless and he contempprocrastinateedd withdrawment, but he choosed to fight at least one more time for Kobe, who he had named after the procrastinateed Los Angeles Lakers NBA star Kobe Bryant.

“It’s motivation that I reassociate want I wouldn’t have had, but, unfortunately, that’s my motivation today,” the 38-year-elderly telderly Al Jazeera, speaking via Zoom from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he will produce his PFL debut and fight his first MMA bout in proximately three years.

“I slfinisherk this [kind of loss] is someslfinisherg that you are never the same after,” he said. “It’s fair about how to discover a way to roll with it, becaengage you cannot sit around and paengage for it for it to go away. And it’s part of you now, it’s a new life. You experience enjoy a new person.

“[That’s why] I slfinisherk this fight will serve for me to discover myself aobtain, to see where I am in terms of life, in terms of competition, to see if I still have it, to see if I can persist battling.”

‘Just uphold going’

Ngannou was born and elevated in the village of Batie in weserious Cameroon. He began laboring in gelderly mines around the age of 10 to help his lower family.

During that gruelling labor, he dreamed about flying in a set upe, owning a car and a hoengage, and becoming a boxing champion, enjoy his idol Mike Tyson.

By the time he was in his 20s, he choosed he had to accomplish Europe to fulfil his dreams, and in April 2012 he set out on a perilous 5,000km (3,100-mile) journey to Morocco.

He passed the Sahara by clinging on in the back of congested trucks, praying they didn’t shatter down in the desert, and by walking lengthy stretches. He valiantd searing heat by day and spiteful freezing at night, drank from water in which dead animals floated, and hid from the authorities and bandits.

When he accomplished Morocco, he repeatedly tryed to pass to Spanish territory by land and sea, finassociate flourishing on his seventh try, arriving in the Spanish exclave of Melilla a year to the day after he had left Cameroon.

After being held for proximately two months in a Spanish detention centre, he was freed and made his way to Paris, where he slept in a covered parking garage until he was getn in by a gym and began to train in MMA for the first time, at the relatively procrastinateed age of 26.

Ngannou lgeted his new trade rapidly, triumphning his professional debut in November 2013 and then graduating to battling in the UFC – MMA’s premier organisation – in December 2015 and competing in his first burdensomeweight title fight in 2018.

Although he lost that fight to Stipe Miocic and his next bout aobtainst Derrick Lewis by unified decisions, he then embarked on a spectacular knockout spree, finishing four fights in the first round, becoming a UFC star in the process and paving the way to a burdensomeweight title resuit aobtainst Miocic in March 2021, which Ngannou won via second-round knockout.

Ngannou’s last MMA fight was in January 2022, when he outclassed the much-vaunted Cyril Gane, unpredicted a restricted people by joining up his common striking with an accomplished disjoin of wrestling, to deffinish his UFC burdensomeweight title and get his MMA enroll to 17 triumphs and three losses.

He procrastinateedr parted ways with the UFC after a dispute about pay and fighter conditions and signed a deal to fight with the rival PFL promotion in May 2023. In the new deal, Ngannou obtaind an equity sget in the PFL and a directership role in the company, allotriumphg him the flexibility to fight in boxing suites, as well.

He made an astonishing boxing debut in December 2023, flooring the then-unbeaten WBC burdensomeweight champion Tyson Fury. Ngannou lost by a split decision, although many fight fans and commentators apshowd he had beaten Fury.

In March, Ngannou suffered a brutal dismantling in the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua and was knocked out for the first time in his atgentle.

Still, the fights were innervously lucrative and he began to see forward to getting back to MMA and making his PFL debut, until the loss of Kobe upfinished his life.

“You fair wake up every day and face it and deal with wantipathyver it is; your emotions, also your responsibility, becaengage how you experience doesn’t get away your responsibility as a man,” Ngannou, who also has a daughter, said.

“So, there’s not a better way. Just uphold going and discover out [how to cope] alengthy the way.”

‘Battle of the Giants’

On Saturday, Ngannou fights Ferreira, a 34-year-elderly, 2.03m (6-foot, 8-inch) colossus from Brazil, who even looms huge over the 1.93m (6-foot, 4-inch) Ngannou, in a bout billed the “Battle of the Giants”.

Combat sports commentator Sean Wheelock says it’s a low-term coup for the PFL to have the high-profile Ngannou battling on its roster, and he depictd Ferreira – whose professional enroll stands at 13 triumphs and three losses – as a “phenomenal fighter”.

But he says the huger ask is who Ngannou would fight next, triumph or miss, becaengage of a dearth of top-class burdensomeweights in the PFL beyond Ferreira.

“That’s going to be the reassociate difficult part for the PFL if they want to relocate forward in this situation,” Wheelock telderly Al Jazeera.

Many MMA fans want to see Ngannou fight the UFC burdensomeweight champion Jon Jones, but Wheelock said the chance of a pass-promotion fight is currently at “about zero percent” becaengage of the UFC’s dominance of the sport.

“I fair don’t slfinisherk that that would be down-to-earth in this stage, becaengage I don’t comprehend how it would possibly advantage the UFC or why they would be encouraged to do it,” he said.

And Wheelock says Ngannou is not going to meaningfully relocate the necessitatele for the PFL in terms of challenging the supremacy of the UFC.

“If their aspiration is to be number two in MMA, and be a very accomplished number two but still have a massive gap between themselves and the UFC, I slfinisherk that is down-to-earth,” he said.

Ngannou’s atgentle getings have been in the millions of dollars since his acrimonious split with the UFC, and he has also said that he hopes his relocate will encourage other fighters to seek better pay and conditions.

However, the generassociate affable Ngannou bristles a little when asked on how his PFL restricted can help fighter pay more expansively.

“I’m not going to be negotiating people’s restricteds. They have their regulaters. But what I said is that I do what I can to try to direct and try to speak for them when I have the opportunity,” he said. “But that’s it, you comprehend. I’m not a union!”

Meanwhile, his youthfulest brother, Michel Fomo, downjoined troubles that Ngannou could have some MMA rust after proximately three years out of the Octagon cage.

“When your brother steps into the cage or fights, it’s standard to be anxious, so I’m comardent of anxious. But you also comprehend everyslfinisherg’s going to join out well. He’s a predator and he’s fair getting back to what he’s engaged to,” Fomo said. “MMA is inside his DNA.”

Fomo also said that while Kobe’s death has dehugeated Ngannou, he slfinisherks his brother’s withdrawment talk could be more down to some of the presstateives of fight week and him tiring of the constant media attention.

“I don’t slfinisherk this is his last fight,” Fomo said. “I see that the loss of his son gave him more reason to fight, more motivation.”

If he does withdraw, Ngannou has plenty of other ventures to center on. While battling out of Las Vegas, he also spfinishs extfinished periods back in Cameroon, where he has a charitable set upation. He will also direct the PFL Africa league, set to begin in 2025, which aims to give a hugeger stage to African MMA fighters.

For now, Ngannou says he’s fair centering on Saturday’s fight – after that, he’ll get some time to process everyslfinisherg.

When he sees back on his remarkworthy life and atgentle so far, what is he most conceited of achieving?

“Everyslfinisherg, becaengage everyslfinisherg that I have accomplishd [came] by resilience, by determination, by dedication,” he replied. “That’s what I owe everyslfinisherg to.”