Francis Ngannou is back in MMA this Saturday, October 19, against Renan Ferreira, for a heavyweight fight in Riyadh. In almost three years since his last appearance in the cage, the man has gone through difficult sporting times, and an infinitely painful ordeal on a human level. To the point of questioning his future and his desire to continue in this difficult and demanding sport.
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“ This is the biggest event in PFL history “, these are the terms used by Peter Murray, the general director of the Professional Fighters League, an organization of MMA where Francis Ngannou now operates, since he left the UFC. And for whom he will fight on Saturday against Renan Ferreira in Riyadh for his return to the cage, after a very lucrative interlude in English boxing, despite two extremely high-profile defeats. “ Ferreira, 2m03, is a monster, it’s going to be a real fight, it’s 50/50 », insists the PFL executive.
The latter has every interest in raising mayonnaise around this crucial event for his young organization, which ultimately wishes to compete with the UFC. Except that this 50/50 story may not be so far from reality for Ngannou. If he left MMA in the shoes of a great of this sport in 2022, after a successful defense of the heavyweight championship title against the Frenchman Ciryl Gane, he returns to it with few certainties. Except that this fight is far from being a gift for the “Predator”. He, who celebrated his 38th birthday a full month before this deadline, will present himself in a cage for the first time in a very long time with very little certainty.
Two defeats and a personal tragedy
Boxers talk about “ ring rust » (translate “ring rust”) when a fighter has not tasted competition for a long time, and therefore the rhythm and pressure imposed by it. Ngannou finds himself in a much worse situation, in addition to being potentially “cage rusty”, his last outing ended in a crushing defeat. In the rules of the noble art, last March, against Anthony Joshua, the Cameroonian was sent to the mat twice before suffering a terrible knockout in the second round. The kind of blow some fighters never come back from. A bit like a rupture of the cruciate ligaments in a footballer, after which the latter would never completely regain his level.
Obviously, the Cameroonian giant went through much more difficult trials than a knockout in the ring, in a fight that made him immensely rich. His trajectory and his story, from Batié to the theaters of Las Vegas, have built an extraordinary human being. The fact remains that the latest ordeal, which man is still going through, is the kind that leaves its mark. Francis Ngannou lost his son Kobe, aged just 15 months, this year. A pain greater than any blow that Renan Ferreira could inflict on him.
“I ask myself a lot of questions about a lot of things”
In order to convince himself to continue, the Cameroonian repeated to himself: “ The best way to honor (my son), maybe it would be to do it for him “. But after such an ordeal, when we no longer fight to meet our material needs which are already largely met, how can we continue to move forward in a sport so hard, so demanding, which requires such mental strength? At the microphone of RFI, in September, he still seemed to be haunted by these questions: “ Lately, I don’t know many things anymore. I ask myself a lot of questions about a lot of things myself. Who am I? What am I doing? Am I doing it right? Does that make sense? And, if not, why do I do it? »
Also readFrancis Ngannou: “If I had decided not to fight anymore, nothing would have stopped me”
Examinations of conscience which do not only make the fighter tremble, but an entire organization. Because Ngannou represents a colossal economic challenge for the PFL. His signing sounded at the time like a huge victory over the UFC, without him fighting in the meantime. A defeat would, and even perhaps a very lackluster victory, put a brake on the development of MMA in Africa to which the PFL is attached through Cameroon. And at the same time would send a fairly negative message: would the league only be able to steal talent at the end of their career from the UFC? So many questions that will be answered, at least in part, on Saturday evening.