FRANCIS NGANNOU emotionally paid tribute to his late son Kobe after winning his MMA return.
Ngannou lost 15-month-old Kobe suddenly in April to leave him contemplating his career in the cage.
But he vowed to fight on in honour of his boy and did so against 6ft 8in Brazilian Renan Ferreira.
And it took him just three minutes to hammer Ferreira into submission – before breaking down in tears.
Ngannou bravely weeped: “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 Anthony Joshua, 35.
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.”
