Francis Ngannou returns to the cage, haunted by tragedy

You would be brave to agree to share a cage with Francis Ngannou. No matter who you are, that is not a fair fight. But you would be braver still, perhaps, to try to convince him that life is a fair fight.

What is fair about a 10-year-old being put to work in a sand mine? What is fair about a child struggling to attain a proper education? What is fair about having to do either while your parents leave each other in the past?

And what of doomed journeys through dark deserts, with coarse sand shredding nerves and spirit, in a young man’s bid to escape Cameroon and reach the refuge of Europe? What of the cruel twist that finally, when one of those journeys did succeed, Ngannou was met with incarceration?

“We were freed by Spanish homeland security after spending two months in jail for illegally entering Europe by sea,” Ngannou tweeted in 2020. “This, after attempting for one year from Morocco.” Even upon leaving prison, there was no reprieve: Ngannou was homeless, penniless and alone in Paris.

Truthfully, these chapters of the Ngannou story have been told many times in the years since, with their bleaker aspects overridden by the inspiration of the Cameroonian’s resilience – a trait which, added by the incomprehensible power in Ngannou’s hands, took him to the UFC heavyweight title and the life-changing payday of a boxing match with Tyson Fury.

But if no author would dare to invent the adversity and defiance in those chapters, no author would dare to dream up the nightmarish mercilessness on the latest page.

Never mind the brutal, sobering nature of Ngannou’s sophomore boxing match, an obliteration by Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia. Just weeks after Ngannou was helped up from the canvas in that ring in Riyadh, some spiteful strand of fate would yank the 38-year-old back to his knees. On 29 April, Ngannou announced the passing of his 15-month-old son, Kobe.

“Too soon to leave, but yet he’s gone,” wrote a tormented Ngannou. “My little boy, my mate, my partner Kobe was full of life and joy. Now he’s laying without life. I shouted his name over and over but he’s not responding. I was my best self next to him, and now I have no clue of who I am. How do you deal with such a thing? How can you live with it? Why is life so unfair and merciless? Why does life always take what we don’t have?”

Days later, Ngannou wrote: “The rainbow raised yesterday at Kobe’s burial ceremony. He witnessed all the love that you guys have for him. He came like a King and left as a King.”

Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick told Uncrowned this week: “I was the first person he called when he found out. He would always call me and ask theoretical or hypothetical questions, things like, ‘Bubba, why did you get married?’ or, ‘Why do we celebrate birthdays?’ Some philosophical thing like that. But this time he said: ‘Bubba, what’s the purpose of life? Do you think I’m a good person? Why did they take my son from me? Kobe’s gone.’

“I had to pull over. He’s crying, I’m crying, I don’t know what to say to him. It was the heaviest I’ve ever felt in my life. He’s my best friend, and you think of your own kids. You just want to hug your own kids.”

Some will search for a reason behind Ngannou’s tragedy, as though everything has an explanation. Maybe it is that Ngannou has been armed with a depth of defiance in his life that has, thus far, defied the depths of despair into which he has repeatedly been plunged. ‘God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.’ Arguably, no explanation could ever be sufficient for what Ngannou has endured.

And yet, as always, he does endure. And so on Saturday, Ngannou returns to mixed martial arts, competing in the cage for the first time since January 2022.

Almost three years ago, the most fearsome puncher that MMA has ever seen transformed himself into a wrestler, out-thinking and out-working his former teammate Ciryl Gane. With that, the victorious Ngannou retained the UFC heavyweight title, and a year later he walked out of the company – determined to honour his sense of personal value, believing that he could make more money elsewhere.

UFC president Dana White ridiculed him, but Ngannou bet on himself and won like no fighter in MMA history without the name Conor McGregor. And so came boxing, and the vindicating paydays against Fury and Joshua. And along came an MMA contract with the Professional Fighters League (PFL), allowing Ngannou re-entry into the sport that made him famous.

With that, Ngannou will look to become a two-time heavyweight champion of MMA, as he faces Renan Ferreira in Riyadh. Working in Ngannou’s favour are divine power, unyielding mental fortitude, an apparent skill advantage, and the adaptability shown in his win over Gane. Working against the “Predator” are age, a long absence from the cage, and grief.

It could well be, in a sport as unforgiving as this, that Ngannou is denied the victory that fans crave. Yet if anyone can overcome the unimaginable once again, it is him.