FRANCIS NGANNOU tearfully made his return to MMA by viciously knocking out Renen Ferreira – and dedicated it to his late son Kobe.
Ngannou was beaten in the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua in March but suffered a far greater loss just a month later.
Francis Ngannou was emotional as he dedicated his win to his late son
Ngannou poses with the PFL belt
His son Kobe – only 15-months-old – suddenly passed away to leave Ngannou devastated and contemplating retirement.
But the heavyweight hero – who emigrated from Cameroon to France on foot over the course of a year – vowed to fight for his boy.
And with Kobe tattooed on his bicep, Ngannou dedicated victory to son as he broke down in tears in the cage.
He said: “I can’t think about anything other than my son, Kobe. I only took this fight because of him, I took the fight for him.
“I hope they can remember his name because without Kobe, we wouldn’t be here tonight. I wouldn’t have fought.”
Ngannou put his MMA career on hold after walking out on the UFC in 2022 as their heavyweight world champion.
And he crossed over to pursue a lifelong ambition of boxing, sensationally dropping Tyson Fury on his debut.
But he lost a controversial split-decision loss to Fury, 36, before being knocked out five months later by Joshua, 34.
Ngannou went back to his MMA roots to make his return against Ferreira, 34, but had to do it carrying the burden of losing his son.
He said: “It was tough, it’s been tough. Not only the training camp was tough, the past two days were very tough, full of emotion.
“I couldn’t do anything without thinking about it. I was trying to say I was strong, tell myself to keep moving but it was hard.”
Ngannou came out swinging against Ferreira but scored a surprise takedown to take the bout to the ground.
But it was on the floor that he ruthlessly hammered 6ft 8in Ferreira into submission to hand him an emotional first-round finish.
Wiping away the tears from his eyes, Ngannou once more dedicated the moment to his son.
He said: “I just want to say, please remember my son. Remember my son, Kobe. This is for Kobe.”