Francis Ngannou Says He Was Unsure He’d Ever Fight Again After Son Kobe’s Death

Francis Ngannou he returned to the cage last weekend, six months after tragedy struck his family, and the martial arts superstar admits he wasn’t sure if he would ever fight again.

TMZ Sports spoke with the 38-year-old former UFC champion-turned-boxer/PFL fighter just days after being sent Renan Ferreira via first-round knockout in Saudi Arabia … and then broke down in tears after the fight to talk about the devastating loss of his baby boy, Kobe.

“Oh yeah (I didn’t know if I would fight again). There was a point where you knew nothing. Everything felt so fragile,” Francis said, adding that his mind was racing a mile a minute. that terrible time.

“You didn’t know if it was like some genetic epidemic, a genetic disease. You didn’t know it was like a curse. If it was just bad luck that would continue. There was a point that, you know. , like a lot of things have happened in your head, things that you don’t normally think about.’

Ngannou made the fight look easy, but mentally and emotionally, he says it was the “toughest” of his career.

Finally, after deciding when to retreat to the cage, Francis came to the conclusion that the pain would never go away…so there was no waiting.

“I didn’t feel like there was going to be a time when it went away where it would be good. It’s one of those things that you realize early on that you better learn how to roll with it because it will. always be there.”