We Are Officially On The Road To Francis Ngannou's MMA Return

It has been 954 days since we've seen Francis Ngannou compete in a cage, under a mixed martial arts ruleset, but we are finally on the road to his return and I couldn't be happier about that. 

Two professional boxing bouts and a company change later, the former UFC Heavyweight Champ is headed to Saudi Arabia in October to take on Renan Ferreira in his debut with the Professional Fighters League. If you're not familiar with Ferreira, he's the best heavyweight the PFL's got and a really scary threat; he won last year's heavyweight tournament AND knocked out Ryan Bader in their big PFL vs Bellator crossover event. 

He even told Francis that while he's been through a lot this year, and faced some hard challenges, the hardest challenge will be beating Ferreira....

I was absolutely shocked that he said that, considering Ngannou suffered the loss of his 15 month old son earlier this year, but I'm gonna just assume something was lost in translation there/that he didn't mean for that to be as offensive as it was.

Francis spoke on that a bit, as well, and understandably got very emotional when talking about fighting for his son. He even said "I think this is it." at one point which made me think it may be his retirement fight, but he later clarified that he's looking to stay active going forward....

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I was happy for him going and getting the bag in the squared circle, but I want him in the cage while he's still got a few years in his prime. This is where he made a name for himself, where he's the most dangerous, and where he fits best.

Jon Jones came up, of course, but Ngannou dismissed him and said he didn't want the fight….

It really is a shame that we never got to see that superfight, but again - I'm just happy Ngannou is getting back in the cage. October 19th can't get here soon enough.