The build up to the fight between Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira got off to an ugly start after a few statements referring to his late son were made by the Brazilian. And now it appears, Ngannou is aiming for another Alistair Overeem-esque knockout into the shadow realm when he returns to the cage.
Ngannou was spotted in public for the first time since his loss to Joshua and the heartbreaking announcement about his child’s passing.
During the pre-fight presser, Ferreira made a comment about how Ngannou has had a tough year but said it’s only going to get tougher when they face off in the octagon later this year.
Francis Ngannou on Instagram pic.twitter.com/f8FY6pqeD7
— MMAFanatic (@FanaticMma10) August 24, 2024
Naturally fans were pretty upset about the insensitive remark, thinking Ferreira took a cheap shot by bringing up Ngannou’s insurmountable grief. Now, UFC fighters Gilbert Burns and Renato Moicano quickly defended Ferreira, explaining that the translation was off and those weren’t actually his words.
Unfortunately for Ferreira, it seems as though ‘The Predator’ has kept receipts.
He uploaded a story on his Instagram account with the caption “#braceforimpact” with a bomb emoji at the end suggesting he was coming and an envoy of the shadow realm.
Ngannou has gone through struggles that would make most people on the planet tap out. He started in the hells of the sand mines of Cameroon and had to cross the border to France with the hopes of becoming a boxer and changing his life.
After repeated arrests, and deportation, the fighter finally made it to Europe, and then to America and despite everything on his way, bludgeoned his way into becoming the most feared UFC heavyweight champion in recent memory.
So, when UFC president Dana White recently claimed that Ngannou had ducked Jon Jones, not many believed it. Ngannou has now called out both White and Jones for their false narrative.
Ngannou calls out White for lying about Jones fight
Ngannou left the UFC on pretty rough terms after his contract ended. At the time, he was the leading voice for fair fighter pay in the UFC and had wanted to leverage his position in the company to make that happen.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out and the former heavyweight champion moved on to the PFL for a far better and liberating contract.
Since then, Dana White’s been saying that Ngannou walked away from the Jones figh because he was scared to fight guys like the current champion.
But at a recent PFL press conference, Francis had had enough—he called White a liar and claimed that it was actually Jones who was dodging him.
Ngannou says the UFC gave him a different story about Jones being pretty much done with fighting and living the good life, away from the spotlight, with plenty of money.
With both sides telling different stories, we might never know what really happened. Unfortunately, the real losers here are the fans, who missed out on what could’ve been an epic fight between two of the greatest ever.
