Renan Ferreira’s strong comments toward Francis Ngannou weren’t directed at his personal life.
On Thursday, during the press conference promoting their fight on Oct. 19 at PFL battle of the Giants, Ferreira casued a stir online after saying that he was “gonna be the biggest problem” of Ngannou’s “tough year.” Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, is coming off a KO loss to Anthony Joshua in boxing earlier this year, and tragically also the loss of his son – which had him contemplating retirement.
Some questioned if the Brazilian was directing those comments at Ngannou’s personal life, or if he was referring to his loss to Joshua. Ferreira clarified his comments in a video posted to Instagram, stating his words were not meant to be directed towards Ngannou’s personal life, just what has occurred inside combat sports competition.
“Hey, everyone. Today we had the press conference and I saw a few things came out in the press that were completely distorted when speaking about Francis, saying that I was the biggest problem for him this year, but I was referring to the fight,” Ferreira said in the video in Portuguese. “What I said has no connection to his personal life, of everything he just went through with son. I’m a father, I have kids as well, and I will never touch such a delicate subject. I wouldn’t go that low. My condolences to Francis. I feel for his loss. I’m a father, I have kids too, I would never say something like that.
“Everything I said was about Francis Ngannou’s year, you get me. He’s coming off two losses in boxing, two year layoff (in MMA), at no point did I want to talk about his personal life and everything that went down with his son. That wasn’t my intention. That’s not me, it’s not in my character. I’d never go that low. People are talking and distorting everything into a crazy version of what happened today. I just wanted to clarify what happened today, that it has nothing to do with what they’re saying. It’s not me doing something that low. I just wanted to make that clear.”
Ferreira (13-3 MMA, 7-1 PFL) won the 2023 PFL heavyweight title and then defeated Bellator heavyweight titleholder Ryan Bader in February to cement himself as the opponent for Ngannou’s highly-anticipated PFL debut.
Ngannou (17-3 MMA, 0-0 PFL), who competed twice in boxing since his departure from the UFC, will be fighting in his first MMA fight since his successful title defense in a unanimous decision victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 back in January 2022.
