Francis Ngannou breaks down while sharing grief over the loss of his son in April: "What's the purpose of fighting?"
Francis Ngannou's son, Kobe, lost his life earlier this year, which has left the former UFC heavyweight champion wondering how he can move forward with both his life and combat sports career. In a recent interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Ngannou touched on the topic.
While he often keeps his personal life private, the death of his son left him with a wound unlike any other. Now, the Cameroonian combat sports star faces occasional struggles to find purpose in fighting, despite vowing to continue:
"Emotionally, there's some days that you wake up and you don't think about every stuff, about everything, and you should. Really, like, what's the purpose, what's the goal if it's going to end up like this? What's the purpose of fighting if I end up not being able to fight for the only person that I can fight for?"
Check out Francis Ngannou talk about his son's tragic death below (1:51:51):
The emotional toll of his son's untimely death proved too great for him to bear, as Ngannou verged on breaking down while talking about his motivation to continue fighting. The tragedy marked a low point in 'The Predator's' life, which was preceded by a brutal knockout loss to Anthony Joshua in his last boxing outing.
Many have wondered how Ngannou will move forward, but the former UFC heavyweight champion has proved himself to be nothing if not resilient, and he will likely find a way to use his upcoming fight with 2023 PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira as a means of honoring his son's memory.
Francis Ngannou named his late son after Kobe Bryant
Francis Ngannou previously revealed that his late son was named after none other than deceased basketball great Kobe Bryant.
According to 'The Predator', he named his son Kobe due to a positive interaction he had had with Bryant in New York during his pre-UFC heavyweight championship days in 2016.
As Ngannou recounts, it was just him and Byrant in a waiting room for roughly 30 minutes, during which they conversed before UFC CEO Dana White arrived to further enlighten the NBA legend on Ngannou's life story.
The moment was so moving for Ngannou that he named his son after Byrant.