The MMA “giants” in question are, of course, Ngannou and opponent Renan Ferreira, the 2023 PFL heavyweight champ.

With the fight arriving on October 19, “The Predator” is in full swing on his promotional tour, after a rough year that saw him knocked out by Anthony Joshua in boxing, then suffer the sudden death of his infant son.

Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday, Ngannou (17-3) revealed that returning to training “wasn’t hard.”

When he first stepped back into the gym, Ngannou took the approach of “let’s go to the gym and see,” explaining that his thinking was “I’m not really sure of anything, I don’t really know if I’m going to do this, or if I can give my all. And if I cannot give it all, maybe it’s better to just cut it out, just take your time, or just cut it out. Because fighting, again, it’s not like a game. When you’re fighting, you’d better be there, focused in there.”

What Ngannou came to realize was that when he was in the gym, he wasn’t caught up in his grief. No matter how his day was going.

“When I’m in the gym, I’m just focused on training. I don’t think about it [the sadness]. Maybe after, when I’m finished training. That’s when I realized I could do it, because it’s not interfering with my training. It’s not like in between rounds, I’m thinking of it. Between rounds, I’m just thinking of what I’m doing right in the fight, in training.”

That’s when Francis Ngannou realized it would be okay, after as he put it, just going with the flow.

Ngannou was also asked about Renan Ferreira’s relative lack of “name value,” given the PFL champ hasn’t become a household name like fellow (now former) PFL star Kayla Harrison.

“We don’t fight names, we fight talent,” stated Ngannou. “The name in that octagon doesn’t matter. It’s useless useless. We fight talent. And let me tell you something, this guy has talent. Of all my opponents, I think he’s definitely going to be one of my toughest fights.”

After all, Ferriera, he pointed out, is well-rounded, and has high-level grappling. Perhaps more surprisingly, Ngannou went on to add “I take this fight as the underdog. I feel like I’m the underdog, yeah.”

Francis Ngannou faces Renan Ferreira at the PFL Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the Kingdom Arena on October 19, 2024.

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The pair were scheduled to face off in September at Bellator San Diego, only for the fight to be scratched on short notice. That led Stots to return to the training room.

“It just felt like a long, super-long training camp. I had got down to I think the last week, after I finished the last hard session, then I got the call that they were moving it,” Stots told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. He’d add that when it comes to the extra time to train, “I know it’s going to be useful come fight time, because I’m going to be that much more ready for the fight. For my family, it just felt like a long time.”

When it comes to the reasoning for the postponement, Stots certainly has his theory, based at least in part on what the promotion told him.

“I literally think— I mean, I didn’t have no injuries or anything like that. From what I’m assuming I don’t think my opponent had injuries, because they just moved it a month later. I’m thinking, and what was told to me, was that they needed me for the Francis Ngannou card. So in my head, it’s like they wanted a Temu version of the Francis Ngannou fight with Renan Ferreira. So they’ve got an African and a Brazilian on the undercard to boost up the Pay-Per-View sales. That’s what I think it is. You’ve got your big giants battling, and you’ve got your little big giants battling.”

Temu version? “We’re the miniature version. Those guys are huge,” Stots noted.

Raufeon Stots is clearly upbeat heading into his first fight of 2024. However, he admitted that there’s been “a lot of waiting.”

“A lot of waiting and anticipating something would pop off. And I don’t hold PFL or Bellator to fault, just because I know there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes that I can’t see,” stated Stots. “But I’ve been asking for fights and I’ve been chomping at the bit. Now that I’ve finally got one, I feel like a breath of fresh air can kind of be let out, because now I can actually get to express myself and kind of let loose on somebody.”

Stots has remained busy, meanwhile, inside and outside of the gym. He’s started up a trucking company, and entered into the ride share business as well. “As far as fighting, I’ve been training, helping other people train for camps. I’ve also been doing two-a-days without any fight scheduled. I’m just ready, I’m ready to get in there.”

Marcos Breno will be the man across from Stots come October 19. The Brazilian enters off a loss to Danny Sabatello, a foe Raufeon Stots himself is quite familiar with, holding two wins over the brash trash-talker. With that experience under his belt, Stots isn’t reading too much into Breno’s loss, noting Sabatello’s mental warfare.

As for Breno, “he comes to fight every time. He has power in both of his hands, I think he’s pretty well-rounded as a fighter. He’s young, but he’s not, really. He’s pretty experienced, he just doesn’t have a lot of Bellator or PFL experience,” outlined Stots. “So yeah, I think he’s going to come out with a chip on his shoulder, because he also hasn’t fought in a while. He hasn’t fought in like, I want to say over a year. So I understand what that chip on your shoulder is like, and then he also had the added pressure of losing his last fight. That puts a different type of fire inside of you. I definitely think he’s going to come out guns a blazing; me too, just because of my layoff and where I believe I should be, which is the title picture. So you’re going to get a fun fight because of that.”

Watch our full interview with PFL Battle of the Giants star Raufeon Stots above.

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The October card will see the long-awaited promotional debut of Francis Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champ and massive free agent signing. Ngannou is set to take on 2023 PFL heavyweight champ Renan Ferreira, over two years on from his last action inside the cage.

In the interim, Ngannou made the jump to boxing, coming close to defeating Tyson Fury, then being knocked out at the hands of Anthony Joshua earlier this year. That signaled a return to MMA for “The Predator,” who sits on a six-fight win streak inside the cage.

Ferreira, the lesser-known of the two heavyweights set to collide in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 19, rides a four-fight win streak, most recently having finished Bellator MMA heavyweight champ Ryan Bader by TKO this past February. Regardless of outcome, Ferreira will reportedly earn a two million dollar payday for going up against Ngannou, something Francis Ngannou himself saw to during his negotiations with the promotion.

Also featured on the Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact card is the debut of Cris Cyborg, the dominant Bellator MMA women’s featherweight champion who has held gold in Invicta FC, Strikeforce, and the UFC as well. She’ll be taking on Larissa Pacheco, the PFL double-champ (women’s lightweight and featherweight). Cyborg, however, is nowhere to be found in the newly released trailer.

While traditional MMA trailers in modern times have focused on fighters and their accomplishments inside the cage, the Battle for the Giants trailer feels more like a boxing promo, going the “Godzilla vs. Kong” route in this case (or, insert any Kaiju you prefer).

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That’s the event headlined by the long-awaited PFL debuts of Francis Ngannou and Cris Cyborg. The card is set for Saturday, October 19, 2024 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

PFL officials recently announced the addition of the rematch between Eblen and Edwards.

The pair first faced off in September 2023, when Eblen (15-0) successfully defended his middleweight crown when he knocked out Edwards in the third round. In his next fight, Eblen earned a split decision victory in a very competitive fight with PFL champ Impa Kasanganay, part of the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions card this past February.

Since the loss to Eblen last year, Edwards (13-3) has claimed a decision victory over Canada’s Aaron Jeffery. Fabian is the younger brother of former UFC welterweight champ Leon Edwards.

The Battle of the Giants card will see Francis Ngannou take on 2023 PFL heavyweight champ Renan Ferreira, while Cris Cyborg will face 2023 PFL women’s featherweight champion Larissa Pacheco. Thus far, promotion officials have confirmed the following match-ups:

• Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira
• Cris Cyborg vs. Larissa Pacheco
• Johnny Eblen vs. Fabian Edwards – for the Bellator MMA middleweight championship
• A. J. McKee vs. Paul Hughes

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Ngannou has been the PFL’s biggest signing to date, but he’s yet to actually compete for the promotion, after dabbling in boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

That’s set to change on Oct. 19 when Ngannou and Ferreira, the 2023 PFL heavyweight champ, finally throw down. It hasn’t been easy getting to this point, however.

Delaying Ngannou’s return to fighting was personal tragedy: the death of his 15-month old son, Kobe, this past April. That’s a subject that Ngannou broached early on during Thursday’s press conference in Washington, D.C., and elaborated on later speaking with Cageside Press.

“Fighting for me is a lifestyle. Again, I got to the point, I questioned myself if I should continue or if I should just retire. But I didn’t want my son to be the reason I do that,” Ngannou stated, asked why he chose to return to fighting in the wake of the tragedy. “So I decided so that I would keep doing it, fighting for him. He just became a new purpose for me. My son, he was 15 months old but he was very active, and I had a lot of plans for the future for him. Life decided otherwise.”

“I decided to make a positive out of his fifteen months of living, to find a strength out of him, to find him as a motivation to keep going instead of to quit. I think it’s the best way to honor him.”

All of that makes perfect sense, but the press conference hit a stumbling block when Renan Ferreira decided to call himself the “toughest challenge” Ngannou would face this year.

“Francis [Ngannou] has been going through a tough year in his life, but the toughest challenge in his life and in his year is gonna be me,” Ferreira stated via translator. “I’m gonna be the biggest problem of his year right now. A tough puzzle for him to figure out.”

Given his son died just four months ago, Ferreira certainly will not be Francis Ngannou’s biggest challenge this year. “Problema,” however, almost certainly meant in fighting, and he later reached out to multiple media members to clarify his statement.

Ferreira also posted a similar clarification on social media. “I just want to make something clear. Francis Ngannou is a great man & I respect him. When I said that I was going to be his biggest [challenge] this year I was talking about Anthony Joshua & Tyson Fury, not about his family. I am a father myself.”

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“The Predator” signed with the Professional Fighters last year, but has competed twice in boxing, against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, with a return date for MMA up in the air until recently. However, on Wednesday, league officials announced via press release that Ngannou (17-3) would face off with 2023 PFL heavyweight champ Renan Ferreira (13-3, 3NC) at “Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact” on October 19, 2024.

Serving as co-headliner will be Bellator MMA women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg (27-2, 1NC), who will take on PFL two-division champ (2022 & 2023, lightweight and featherweight) Larissa Pacheco (23-4) – the first and only woman to defeat Kayla Harrison.

The event will air live on PPV in the U.S. via ESPN+, and DAZN elsewhere. Special “Super Fighters” championship belts will be on the line in both the main and co-main event.

“The Professional Fighters League is excited to announce the highly anticipated return of superstar, undisputed Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou, to MMA in The Battle of the Giants against the most-feared Heavyweight, 6-foot-8 2023 PFL Heavyweight Champion Renan Ferreira in the biggest world title fight of the year,” PFL CEO Peter Murray said via Wednesday’s press release. “On October 19 live on ESPN+ in the U.S. and DAZN worldwide, MMA fans around the world will witness a true battle of the greatest fighters on the planet competing for the PFL Super Fights Championship Belts.”

Ngannou last competed in MMA in January of 2022, when he defeated Ciryl Gane in a title unification bout under the UFC banner. He then found himself embroiled in a contract dispute, exiting the promotion a year later after being unable to come to terms on a new deal. He signed with the PFL later that year.

Cyborg, like Ngannou, has dabbled in boxing of late, last defending her Bellator title against Cat Zingano in October 2023. She has been vocal about pushing for a new date, which she finally has. Neither her opponent, Pacheco, nor Ngannou’s in Ferreira come as any surprise. But while Ferreira defeated Ryan Bader at the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions card earlier this year, Pacheco has been dormant since winning the league’s featherweight title last year.

No venue or location has been announced for Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact.

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