Francis Ngannou made his return to the cage after two years as he stopped Renan Ferreira in one for his first defense of the lineal heavyweight title.
After a boxing run that made him a multi-millionaire and saw him drop then-world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, the excitement for Ngannou’s comeback was palpable. And he returned to Riyadh to face 2023 champion Ferreira with many feeling the pair were fighting for the legitimate MMA crown.
Stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Ray Lewis were cageside at the Mayadeen facility, with the soccer star arriving to take in some of the undercard early. The event also featured two more title fights as PFL and Bellator pulled out all the stops for their big Super Fights pay-per-view.
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Francis Ngannou stops Renan Ferreira with vicious ground and pound in first PFL fight
Francis Ngannou entered the cage for the first time in 1,000 days on Saturday night, and quickly packed a punch as he showed off his famous power on Renan Ferreira. But it was his wrestling that proved the difference as he took his rival down early.
From there, he went for nasty ground and pound, although he was almost caught in a triangle from the bottom as the big man showed off his jiu-jitsu. However, Ferreira ultimately couldn’t handle the pressure and ended up succumbing to big shots.
Ngannou was visibly emotional after the fact, dedicating the victory to his 15-month-old son Kobe who passed away earlier this year. The result marked his first win since January of 2022 when he defended his UFC belt against Ciryl Gane.
MMA heavyweight title lineage explained after Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira
Despite almost three years since Ngannou defended his UFC heavyweight title, there is still confusion over who is truly the top heavyweight in the sport. He never lost his belt in the octagon, and the situation that followed his departure was complicated to say the least.
Jon Jones is technically the UFC heavyweight champion after defeating Ciryl Gane in March of last year. But he was unable to defend against Stipe Miocic the following November due to a pectoral injury that forced the promotion to cancel the fight.
This allowed Tom Aspinall to win the interim title against Sergei Pavlovich instead, which created further issues atop the division. He has even defended the belt against Curtis Blaydes, but it appears Jones has no interest in unifying as he plans to retire after making the Miocic fight happen.
It all made the promotion for Ngannou’s PFL return easy for the promotion as he still maintained arguably the clearest claim to the throne.
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