Francis Ngannou leaves Renan Ferreira unconscious with first-round KO

Francis Ngannou needed less than four minutes to render Renan Ferreira unconscious and celebrate an emotional return to MMA.

Ngannou was returning to the cage more than two years after his last outing, in which he defended his heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane. He then switched his attention to the ring, giving a huge scare only to slip to a points defeat, before he was brutally knocked out in the second round by .

Ngannou had already faced off with Ferreira before he was stopped by Joshua and he kept his word by confirming his fight against the PFL's giant champion despite losing his one-year-old son this summer. Ferreira won his title last year before beating Ryan Bader earlier in 2024 to set up a clash with Ngannou. And after a patient opening minute, Ngannou surprisingly took the fight to the ground with a takedown before finishing the fight with a vicious barrage of ground-and-pound.

"I can't think about anything [other] than my son Kobe. I only took this fight because of him," said an emotional Ngannou as held back the tears. "I went to fight for him. I hope they can remember his name because without Kobe, we wouldn't be here tonight. I wouldn't have fought."

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

In the co-main event, featherweight Cris Cyborg became the PFL's first Superfight champion with a unanimous points win over fellow Brazilian Larissa Pacheco. Cyborg, who is also Bellator's 145lb champion, edged out the two-weight PFL champion over five rounds, winning by a score of 49-46 on all three judges' cards.

Earlier, Paul Hughes seized his chance to shine on the big stage when he outpointed former Bellator lightweight champion AJ McKee over three rounds. Ireland's Hughes was fighting for just the second time under the PFL banner but edged a split-decision against his decorated opponent. "Look at me now, I'm here on one of the best and I took on one of the best guys on the planet," said Hughes. "That wasn't one of my best performances, I was gassed after the first round; I didn't have a great training camp."

Birmingham's Fabian Edwards fell short in his Bellator middleweight title rematch with champion Johnny Eblen. Eblen had stopped his challenger in the third round last year but Edwards earned a second shot just 12 months later. And although he finished strongly, Edwards had too much ground to make up with each of the three judges scoring the fight to the champion by a score of 48-47.

In the opening fight of the night, Taha Bendaoud defeated Tariq Ismail in the opening fight of the night via second-round triangle. England's Ibragim Ibragimov, whos three younger brothers are on the books at , won each of the three rounds against Nacho Campos to record his second victory in the PFL. Makkasharip Zaynukov dominated Dedrek Sanders to win by a score of 30-26 on the three judges' scorecards while Raufeon Stots closed the early card by choking out Marcos Breno in the final session.