Francis Ngannou made a triumphant return to mixed martial arts with a first-round knockout of Renan Ferreira in Riyadh.
After his high-profile transition to boxing with heavyweight bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, the 38-year-old Cameroonian returned to the cage for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) event dubbed “Battle Of The Giants”.
After some early heavy kicks from both fighters Ngannou, who hadn’t had a mixed martial arts fight since January 2022, took the fight to the mat and eventually landed a series of bludgeoning punches to end Ferreira with 88 seconds left in the first round.
A tearful Ngannou dedicated his victory to the memory of his 15-month-old son, Kobe, whose death was announced in April of this year.
“I only did this fight because of him,” Ngannou said. “I wanted to fight for him… I hope they can remember his name, because without Kobe, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
The event broke with the PFL’s usual format of a regular season and play-offs to put on a series of “super fights” with belts at stake as Ngannou made his return to the sport where he made his name after a foray into the world of boxing.
Ngannou’s rise from childhood poverty in Cameroon to the pinnacle of mixed martial arts, where he won the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021, made him a hugely popular figure and one of the most sought-after free agents in combat sports when his UFC contract expired.
He went on to take part in lucrative boxing matches against British heavyweights Fury and Joshua, both of which he lost, and his signing was a huge coup for the PFL in its battle to compete with the UFC.
In the evening’s co-main event for the PFL Super Fights women’s featherweight belt, Brazilians Cris Cyborg and Larissa Pacheco went to war over five rounds, with the vastly experienced Cyborg emerging victorious via unanimous decision.
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