Francis Ngannou has revealed that he strongly considered retiring after losing his son this year, but now has more purpose than ever.
The lineal MMA heavyweight champion’s year got off to a disaster start in March when he was stopped in the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua. But all of that was put in perspective a few weeks later when his son Kobe passed away at just 15 months old.
Despite living a relatively private home life away from the sport, he decided to make a statement and eventually allowed fans in on details of what had happened. And after a few months spent away from public life, he announced his PFL debut for this Saturday against Renan Ferreira.
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Francis Ngannou lost his son Kobe in April
After his boxing defeat, Francis Ngannou had returned to training in Dubai, leaving his family including Kobe at home in Cameroon. A few days into his camp he learned from his brother that his son was struggling with an illness and that it was beginning to look bleak.
Moments later, he called the hospital where he found out that Kobe had passed away. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, Ngannou explained his bemusement at what had happened, saying: “This kid was 15 months; he was bigger than 15 months. He was growing.
“He was the most joyful, happy kid around. What do you mean he’s gone? Gone where? That was it. I thought I was dreaming. I thought they were going to say that’s not true. I kept calling again and everybody confirmed it. I called my mom, my mom is in tears. What the f*** is this? That was it.
“That hurt a lot… You get back in the apartment and see all his toys, the stuff that he was playing [with], the things that you took from him the other day and put here, it’s right there but he’s not there anymore and will never be there anymore,.
“If they ask you what do you want or what can comfort you, you don’t know. It’s nothing. It’s really about facing it daily, take it one at a time.”
Francis Ngannou details how he decided to make MMA return after his son’s passing
Following the tragic incident, Ngannou contemplated a number of things in his life, including the possibility of hanging up his gloves. But he opted to fight through, and make his way back into the MMA cage.
“I considered everything,” he told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. “I considered a lot of things that I have no idea about. But there is a moment where you don’t know nothing and you are lost, confused about everything and you don’t understand anything.
“Yes, In those moments everyone can be confused. It was the thing that makes most sense, trying to make sense and give a reason of things and give him [Kobe] a positive purpose, not just make it negative.
“Negative things can happen but we can still find our way. We can find a way to make a good out of it, even though it is not what we would like to happen. So that’s how I thought about it.”