The Return of the Predator: Francis Ngannou Warns Renan Ferreira Ahead of Showdown
Francis Ngannou is excited to return to the cage after nearly three years away. As he prepares for his upcoming fight against Renan Ferreira on October 19, Ngannou warns his opponent that he is facing a different kind of challenge, stating that Ferreira will discover this in a difficult way.
Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira
The lineal MMA world champion, who captured the UFC heavyweight title, Francis Ngannou signed with the PFL after walking away from the UFC. Since then, he has had two major blockbuster boxing matches against champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Now, he is coming back into MMA against the towering Brazilian Renan Ferreira.
Renan Ferreira is a PFL world champion who just knocked out the Bellator heavyweight king Ryan Bader in merely 21 seconds. Ferreira and Francis Ngannou are set for a bout live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 19.
Ngannou shared that his body is holding up well after undergoing knee surgery over two years ago, which took a long recovery period. He feels strong and ready for the fight. He explained:
“My body is holding up well…Obviously I had a knee surgery that was over two years, two years and a half [ago] now and it took me quite a long time, over a year, to really get back, but now I’m very strong. By the time that I get back into fight, I get very strong, so yes I can kick even though kicking is not like, my cup of tea but I do kick.
“I just turned 38 so I would say my retire age, I’m targeting around 41 as average…42. It could be 40 but this is like, just in the exceptional case…I’d just like to say I want to leave the sport before the sport leaves me. You know, I would like to leave at [the] top of my game.” [Ht Sportskeeda]
On the upcoming fight, he added:
“What I will say is that he [Ferreira] knows that he has a different beast in front of him – nothing he has ever faced. I hope he knows that because if not, he’s going to find out in not a nice way.”
