Cameroon’s Francis Ngannou made a triumphant return to combined martial arts by knocking out Renan Ferreria within the first spherical of their heavyweight conflict on the Skilled Fighters League (PFL) occasion dubbed “Battle Of The Giants” within the early hours of Sunday morning.
After some early heavy kicks from each fighters, Ngannou, who had not fought in combined martial arts since January 2022, took the combat to the mat and ultimately acquired behind his Brazilian opponent, touchdown a sequence of bludgeoning punches to finish the combat with 88 seconds left within the first spherical.
A tearful Ngannou then devoted his victory to the reminiscence of his 15-month-old son Kobe, who died in April.
“I solely did this combat due to him. I wished to combat for him … I hope they will keep in mind his identify, as a result of with out Kobe, we wouldn’t be right here tonight,” he stated in a post-fight interview within the cage.
The occasion broke with the PFL‘s regular format of an everyday season and playoffs to placed on a sequence of “tremendous fights” with belts at stake as Ngannou made his return to the game the place he made his identify after a foray into the world of boxing.
Ngannou’s rise from childhood poverty in Cameroon to the top of combined martial arts, the place he gained the Final Combating Championship (UFC) heavyweight title in March 2021, made him a massively standard determine and one of the sought-after free brokers in fight sports activities when his UFC contract expired.
He went on to participate in profitable boxing matches in opposition to heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, each of which he misplaced, and his signing was an enormous coup for the PFL in its battle to compete with the UFC.