What will Francis Ngannou do with a huge chunk of hard-earned wealth from Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) if his son, Kobe, is not there to share? This question apparently ran through the mind of the undisputed heavyweight champion when he lost his 15-months-old son in April.
After 17 MMA victories, Ngannou left the UFC where he was world heavyweight champion. He then decided to cross into professional boxing where he had an impressive debut. He would knock down Tyson Fury, but failed to win the match, losing a narrow split decision on the judges’ scorecards.
Then he got devastated, knocked down three times by Anthony Joshua in his second pro boxing fight in March this year. This was not just a defeat. It was a blowing loss. Ngannou, known as ‘The Predator’ could be seen regaining consciousness after being knocked out cold in the second round of their fight.
But more devastation was just a month away. Ngannou lived the “hardest experience” of his life when he lost his son, Kobe. Stunned and heartbroken by the demise of his son, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion contemplated retirement.
“There was a point in life that I thought I have won everything that I have won in life. No matter how hard it is out there, whatever challenge that I face out there, I look back at my family, basically at my son, and then I tell myself, I have won, I have made it, no matter what’s happening,” Ngannou said.
The man who clocked 38 last month has made a name for himself with 12 knockouts in 17 victories in his MMA career. The ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’, as he was called after he brought down Fury in the third round of their heavyweight fight last October before succumbing to a points defeat in Saudi Arabia, has also earned money too. The losses on the boxing ring hurt so much. But nothing compared to losing a son, the one problem he couldn’t knock out.
“I lived the hardest experience in my life which makes everything that I have ever been through meaningless. I felt like I got hit by the same thing I have been avoiding in my entire life. I am tough, yeah, but I felt like I didn’t fight for him, I couldn’t fight for him,” a teary Ngannou recalled the son’s death.
Fighting for his son
Now, finding the motivation to get inside the squared ring after losing your own flesh and blood is a tough task on its own, but for The Predator, it is a redemption. Retirement is no longer on his agenda and he is making his comeback to MMA this weekend at the ‘Battle of the Giants’. His sole motivation this time is his son, Kobe.
Kobe was one of the fans who watched Joshua floor his father in the second round of the 10-round heavyweight bout at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a month earlier. And his father had plans for him.
“They had just finished building a rooftop basketball court for him in Yaounde the night that he died,” Ngannou explained as he broke down. “Though he was just 15-months-old, all my dreams were already on him. I was looking on him to be whatever I am not, thinking about his education, may be invest in a school that he will attend, but I have never ever thought that something will happen to him…He was more than just a kid, he was a multiple project.”
Now the project has crumbled in just an instant leaving Ngannou in a state of fragility. “Since April, I have been questioning a lot of stuff, even asking myself, should I [continue to] do this, should I just stop, is it worth it…It is the moment in life that you feel you have all but out of a sudden you realize you have nothing,” Ngannou explained.
But Ngannou is not a quitter. He will return to the MMA, a sports he says gives him a different adrenaline, when he faces Brazilian Renan Ferreira in the Battle of the Giants on Saturday October 19. He will be making his debut for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) since joining the promotion last year.
Ngannou says his return to the cage is motivated by a deep, personal purpose: fighting for his son, Kobe. He said he has fought a lot of different purposes in his life and the fight against Ferreira on October 17 “is just another fight but with a different purpose” — fight in memory of his son, Kobe. “I cannot forget the loss of my kid… I am looking forward to use it as a motivation,” Ngannou says, explaining that he does not want his son to have that responsibility of being the one who made him stop.
