Francis Ngannou DOMINATED Renan Ferreira In His Return To MMA This Evening

Don’t let the Anthony Joshua knockout a few months back fool you - Francis Ngannou is still that guy in MMA. 

Ngannou returned to the cage for the first time in years tonight, making his PFL debut against Renan Ferreira AKA “La Problema” - who is a truly gigantic human being. 

Ferreira is a former PFL Championship/PFL vs Bellator Championship winner and I thought he was a good first test back for Ngannou tonight, but I definitely thought wrong in thinking that. Poor guy never stood a chance, as Francis Nurmagomedov actually came outta the corner, scored an easy takedown, and then pummeled Ferreira with ground and pound until Big Dan Miragliotta stepped in - way too late might I add. 

Ngannou dedicated this fight to his late son, Kobe, who passed at only 15 months old earlier this year, and the emotion we saw from him and his team after the victory was equal parts beautiful and heartbreaking knowing what was behind it. 

What incredible perseverance from Ngannou to come back after that tragedy. I thought the rest of the card was really enjoyable as well - Cyborg vs Pacheco was an awesome co-main event (congrats to Cyborg) and Johnny Eblen showed some more dominance to defeat Fabian Edwards for the second time. 

Plus, JackMac and I actually got to call the prelims on an alternate broadcast - and that was a blast. You can rewatch the prelims on our feed below…. 

Shoutout to the PFL for letting us do that, and shoutout Francis Ngannou on a huge win in his return.