A tearful Francis Ngannou dedicated his emphatic debut victory in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) to late son Kobe.
It was a statement winning start to his PFL career for the dominant former UFC heavyweight champion in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, as he knocked out Brazilian Renan Ferreira in the first round of their high-profile ‘Battle of the Giants’ headliner in Riyadh.
In a destructive performance on his first return to MMA since January 2022 following lucrative boxing bouts against both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, Ngannou - who gave Fury a real scare before being brutally stopped by Joshua in two rounds back in March - quickly took Ferreira down to the mat and thundered in a series of powerful left-handed blows to the head that saw the referee step in to wave off the bout after only three minutes and 32 seconds.
It was an emotional night for the 38-year-old, who was fighting for the first time since his 15-month-old son Kobe died in April.
Ngannou was in tears as he paid tribute to Kobe after the stoppage of Ferreira that saw him win the inaugural PFL Super Fights heavyweight championship.
"I can't think about anything other than my son Kobe," he said. "I only took this fight because of him and I'm done. I hope they can remember his name because, without Kobe, we wouldn't be here tonight and I wouldn't have fought.”
He added: “It has been tough. Not only the training camp but the past few days have been full of emotion. I couldn’t do anything without thinking about it. I tried to be strong and give everything to keep moving but it’s hard.”
In Saturday night’s co-main event in Riyadh, Cris Cyborg became the PFL Super Fights women’s featherweight champion after earning a decision victory over Larissa Pacheco.
Birmingham’s Fabian Edwards was beaten by Johnny Eblen, who successfully retained the Bellator middleweight title, while featherweight Zafar Mohsen defeated Husein Kadimagomaev and Belfast lightweight Paul Hughes earned the win of his career so far by edging a split decision against AJ McKee.
There were also victories for all of Raufeon Stots, Makkasharip Zaynukov, Ibragim Ibragimov and Taha Bendaoud on the preliminary card.
