Francis Ngannou opens up on MMA return after tragedy
During a recent interview with Sky Sports, Ngannou explained his return to MMA with the PFL and admitted it nearly didn’t come to fruition.
“This is not a great moment for me. I need some activities. I need to stay active to be in a zone that I belong to. I also need to keep it going, to fight for my boy, for Kobe,” Ngannou said. “The past few months hasn’t been the easiest. I think it has been by far my hardest [moment] in life. I lost my son. For some time, I felt like I didn’t even have to do this or questioning about if I should do it or fight again…
“But I want to do something good in his memory. Not to be the reason for me to quit but to be motivation and also to fight for him.”
Ngannou was then further pressed on his retirement hint.
“It’s not that I have come close to retiring. It’s just that in this circumstance you think, you have different thoughts,” Ngannou said. “You see how fragile life is. You feel hurt, you feel powerless. You feel useless. You’re questioning about your existence, about the importance of all of this, or life in general…
“It’s not that I have considered retiring or something. It’s just that you have to deal with something that wasn’t on the landscape.”
Ngannou’s return to MMA comes after back-to-back losses in his first two professional boxing fights, including a loss to Anthony Joshua earlier this year.
