CNN
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With a new purpose in life and a truly heavy heart, former UFC champion Francis Ngannou returns to an MMA cage this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

The Cameroonian will make his Professional Fighters League debut against heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira at the Super Fight title in Riyadh on Saturday.

But Ngannou will do so against the backdrop of unspeakable tragedy following the death of his beloved 15-month-old son Kobe earlier this year.

“The best way to pay tribute and honor him is to do something positive. “Continuing to stay active because that’s the best way to pay tribute to him instead of just quitting because if I had stopped fighting it would have been like quitting,” Ngannou told CNN Sport. “It wasn’t the time for me to retire and stop fighting.

“(He was) a brave guy. He came as a king and left as a king. He was just something special. For some reason he couldn’t live any longer. I had to watch it so many times and was impressed. I couldn’t believe it was mine. He was the best thing that could be in me.”

Inspired and motivated by the memory of his son, the man who once delivered the hardest punch ever recorded in UFC history now has his sights set on Ferreira, looking to add to his record of just three losses in 20 mixed martial arts competitions. Twelve of his 17 wins came in the round of 16.

This will be the African star’s first MMA fight since 2022. In recent years, Ngannou switched to the sweet science: boxing. He suffered a controversial points defeat to Tyson Fury late last year – despite beating the Englishman in one round – while he was knocked out by Fury’s compatriot Anthony Joshua in early 2024.

“I want to get back into the MMA field because no matter how much I enjoy boxing, I miss MMA. It’s time to come back,” revealed the heavyweight, looking ahead to the duel with his Brazilian opponent, who has 13 wins and 11 knockouts to his name.

“He is a very dangerous opponent, just like everyone is a dangerous opponent. All these people I’ve fought before. It’s just a matter of finding the way. Implement your strategy correctly. Get your game plan right to overcome it. He’s dangerous, but I firmly believe that I’m more dangerous than him. I think I have the best motivation. I’m the best at this game.”

Ngannou’s courageous journey to the top of his sport is more than inspiring. He grew up in Cameroon and was already working in a sand mine at the age of ten to support his family. As a single mother, it was a daily battle against poverty. He describes his childhood as “hard and very challenging,” but also one that strengthened him for future life experiences.

“And then I found myself in a situation where I didn’t have to worry about anything, you know? “I felt like I was prepared for anything and in that moment I realized that my past was the best thing that ever happened to me for so long,” reflected Ngannou as he shared details of his remarkable life story.

In 2012, a life-changing turning point came: Ngannou made the momentous decision to leave family, friends and his homeland behind. An epic, year-long journey followed, a journey through several countries and continents plagued by danger, but also carried by the hope for a better life. His goal may have been to one day realize the dream of a professional martial arts career in America.

The journey took him thousands of kilometers over land, mountains and sea before he finally arrived in Paris. On the way he lived in forests where hunger was omnipresent.

“When you’re in survival mode, you do whatever it takes. Whether it’s finding food in the trash, you can find food where you need it. No matter if you drink dirty water from a potential well, you drink it to survive,” Ngannou said.

“We put ourselves at physical risk, whether it was walking on the barbed wire to cross the fence or whether it was crossing the ocean and getting to Spain,” he added.

Although Ngannou could not swim, he attempted to cross the Strait of Gibraltar six times on a rubber dinghy. All six attempts failed, although giving up was never an option.

“It was my ego thinking that way that kept me going,” he said. “Some people will return because they have a place to return to. But some don’t because it’s their only option. You don’t have a plan B. If your only plan is a plan A, you are giving everything to your plan and taking a lot of risk.”

On the seventh attempt, Ngannou’s patience and persistence were finally rewarded when the Red Cross finally brought him and the group he led to safety on April 3, 2013 – remarkably, exactly one year to the day he left his home country. But what followed, he says — a two-month detention in an immigration detention center — was psychologically troubling.

“It was very heavy to carry. “It gets to the point that maybe they should have just left me behind,” Ngannou remembers. “You realize that you were already free in the forest. But you’re locked in this box. It was tough, but a good transition from where we are now. It was completely different.”

Ngannou eventually made it to Paris, where he once again endured hardship as he was homeless and forced to sleep in a parking lot. However, the Cameroonian’s spirit would never be broken. He found a local gym – he told the then-owner, “I have no money, I have nothing, but I want to be a world champion” – and there he got hope and an introduction to MMA.

It was the beginning of his path to Ultimate Fighting Championship glory. Eight years later, this incredible Hollywood-style rags-to-riches story would eventually lead to an American dream coming true in March 2021 when Ngannou defeated Stipe Miocic to become UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Ngannou eventually parted ways with the UFC, and his adventure with boxing soon came, but it could well be in his future again – possibly soon after this upcoming fight with Ferreira. “Boxing is unfinished business for me,” said the man whose mantra is to always live with the mindset of “I will conquer the world.”

“That’s what always kept me going. My motivation, my determination, my commitment. You can take everything from me now, but you will never take it from me. You will never take my dream,” he added.

However he goes from here, one thing we can be sure of is that giving up will never be an option for Francis Ngannou.