Kobe.
His name was Kobe.
Francis Ngannou defeated 6-foot-8, 261-pound Brazilian Renan Ferreria with a devastating, first-round knockout inside the MMA cage at the PFL Super Fights in Saudi Arabia. But all he could think about was Kobe, the name of his son who died in April at 15 months old.
“I hope they can remember his name, because without Kobe we wouldn’t be here tonight,’’ Ngannou said with tears in his eyes. “I wouldn’t have (fought).”
In fact, Ngannou, the former UFC champion,, said he arrived for his heavyweight bouts unsure of his fate. And not because it was his first MMA fight since January 2022, after which he left the UFC because of a contract dispute.
It was his first fight since the death of his son. Less than six months since, according to Ngannou, doctors failed to detect a brain malformation that resulted in Kobe’s death. Before then, Ngannou said, he tried to understand how other parents who lost children must feel.
‘But never get anywhere close to how it feels exactly,” he said.
But here he was Saturday, still heavy with grief, headed back to the cage. He could have taken off more time, he said, but added, ‘I don’t think a lifetime will be enough to grieve.’
And so Ngannou agreed to fight one of the biggest and most fearsome fighters in MMA. He entered the ring looking sculpted at 6-4 and 255 pounds, but feeling uncertain.
‘This fight for me was also a way for me to find out if I could still fight, if I still have it,’ he said. ‘If I can deal with this, with the pressure, with the fight week, with the media and everything.”
And deal with the giant, in a pay-per-view even billed as the ‘Battle of the Giants.’
In the first round, Ngannou secured a takedown, knocked out Ferreira and then, as if unsure where to go next as a medical team tended to Ferreira, stayed on his knees.
“It’s like, ‘OK, it’s over. I did what I came here to do,” he said. ‘I have to go back into my reality. You know, to face it.’
Soon after came the tears. And a postfight interview where he got to say the name he wants to be remembered.
Kobe.
