Francis Ngannou in tears recalling son's death as his life story dubbed 'inspirational'
The MMA heavyweight has spoken about the painful tragedy ahead of his return to fighting later this year in a new episode of Diary Of A CEO
Francis Ngannou has opened up about the tragic death of his 15-month-old son Kobe earlier this year. The sudden and heart-breaking news saw the MMA heavyweight back away from all commitments as he mourned with his family.
Sitting down with Steven Barlett in a new episode of hit podcast show, Diary of a CEO, the fighter struggled to hold back tears. He said: "That is something that I never really imagined, and all of a sudden nothing really matters.
"All of a sudden you realise you were complaining about a lot instead of feeling blessed, being grateful. I’m surviving but I’ll never be the same. My whole life was to fight in order for my family not to go through those situation [like I had to], to feel powerless or useless. For the very person that I should fight for, I couldn't.
"There’s some days that you wake up, think about everything, and are like, ‘What’s the purpose?’” He spoke with Steven about growing up with an income of less than $1,000 a day (equivalent to £784.77), working in East African sand mines from the age of nine and having to quit school at 13 because he could not afford the fees.
In the comment section of the episode on YouTube, one viewer wrote: "He has such an inspirational story." A second put: "His story needs to be a movie. Such a inspiration." A third added: "After hearing his story, we’ll never have a reason to complain about anything. Wow, indescribably amazing."
In a time that would break most, he chose to see it as "a signal" that things were going to change in his life. He told the Dragons Den investor that this was "the day [he] decided that [he] was going to be a professional fighter".
This week saw the 37-year-old fighter announce his comeback to the ring which will be a fight against Renan Ferreira on October 19. During the podcast, Ngannou spoke about his incredible journey to becoming who he is today that Steven "didn't believe at first".
The cause of his son's death remained unknown until the heavyweight told The Joe Rogan Experience podcast it was due to a malformation of the brain. There he said the tragedy has given him a new outlook on death.
He said: "I always love life and know that I have everything... but at least for once I'm like 'At least whenever I die I can go and see my kid'.
"I'm not afraid of it. I still want to live, but at least whenever you get to that point, to think like that, [in] some way you're looking forward for whenever that happens."