Francis Ngannou admits he wasn’t sure if he’d ever fight again after losing his son

PFL heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d ever fight again after the death of his son.

Last weekend, Francis Ngannou made his blockbuster return to mixed martial arts. Following his stint in professional boxing, ‘The Predator’ opted to head back into the cage with PFL. In doing so, he signed up to fight Renan Ferreira – a man who many believed was capable of defeating Francis.

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In the end, though, it was Ngannou who got the job done. After a nice takedown and some incredible ground and pound, he was able to knock Ferreira out and claim the PFL heavyweight title.

After the bout, he dedicated the win to his young son Kobe who passed away earlier this year. In a recent interview, he admitted that the tragedy almost led to him hanging up his gloves for good.

Ngannou opens up on his doubts

“Yes, there was a point that I didn’t know anything,” Ngannou said when asked if he thought he might never fight again after his son’s passing. “Everything seemed so fragile. You didn’t know if maybe if it would not happen to you to, if it’s not some sort of genetic pandemic, genetic disease, I don’t know, a curse. If it was just bad luck that was going to keep happening. A lot of stuff happens in your head that you don’t usually think about, or you never think about.”

“By far. It was by far the toughest [training camp of my life],” Ngannou said. “When I thought about retiring, it wasn’t an option, because retiring … was to put the responsibility on my son again, which is not his responsibility. Then I said maybe I should wait for a little while before going back to fighting but I didn’t know when exactly. I didn’t know when there would be a time that it’s going to go away, it’s going to be OK. It’s just one of those things you just realize at the beginning you better learn how to roll with it because it will always be there. …

“It was a way for me not only to have something to focus on but maybe do something to honor him, seeing as I didn’t have a chance to fight for him.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting

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