Francis Ngannou almost withdrew from PFL comeback fight: ‘My rib was hurting so bad’

As if the pressure wasn’t high on Ngannou already, he came into Riyadh with an injured rib that nearly cancelled the fight on weigh-in day.

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Francis Ngannou put on a powerful performance over the weekend at PFL’s “Battle of the Giants” event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, knocking out Renen Ferreira with ground and pound just 90 seconds into their fight.

Everyone knew Ngannou was entering the fight with a massive emotional wound, having lost his son Kobe just six months prior. Following the fight, Ngannou and his coach revealed that he was also harboring a serious physical injury as well: a damaged rib they feared may keep him trapped on the ground should the 261.5 pound Ferreira end up on top.

“Even when I came here in Riyadh, I landed on Thursday night,” Ngannou told MMA Junkie in the dressing room following his win. “On Friday morning, I had a second thought about this fight because my rib was hurting so bad. We checked at the hospital and it was nothing, it was just a pain, but it was painful.”

Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick confirmed the rib was hurting to the point there were discussions of withdrawing from the bout.

“It was bad enough to where you’ve got to think: he blew out his knee and wasn’t going to pull out of the Ciryl Gane fight,” Nicksick said on Sunday. “There’s a difference, different stakes, but also it was a different type of pain for him, and obviously we had a grappling-heavy game plan. He was worried if he was on his back, how he would be able to move and try to grapple with an injured rib.”

“Once he went to the doctors and they cleared him with an MRI and everything else, I think he realized, ‘I’m going to be OK. I’m going to get through this still.’”

The shadow of loss followed Ngannou’s team all through fight week, and it was unclear if “The Predator” would be in the right headspace to compete ... until his opponent made the unwise decision of literally butting heads with Francis during the ceremonial weigh-ins.

“That dude, after that ceremonial weigh-in, that woke him up,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “He was like, ‘All right, motherf—er!’ He said that. We were there, and he’s like, ‘The king is back, I’m going to show this guy what’s up.’ I’m like, ‘Hell yeah.’ It had an energy to it, and we all were kind of happy that Renan did that.”

“We’re all kind of happy that he got in his face. And whatever it did, it woke the giant up.”