What a massive win for Francis Ngannou, and what a big win for the Professional Fighters League. Ngannou scored a definitive first-round KO win over Renan Ferreira to become the PFL’s inaugural Super Fights heavyweight champion.
Here is a look at the finish.
Here is a look at the immediate reaction following Ngannou’s win. Boxer and social media influencer Jake Paul was happy for Ngannou and took to X.
Paul followed it up, asking for a fight that would never happen, but what the heck?
Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani dropped in a Roy Jones Jr. reference to pay homage to Ngannou.
MMA Mania’s Alex Behunin recognized Ngannou’s struggles and expressed happiness for the combat sports legend’s accomplishment.
Ngannou walked away from the UFC as the heavyweight champion. He made the bold move to sign with the PFL, which allowed him to take two boxing matches.
Ngannou lost both of them, and there were doubts about whether he could successfully return to MMA. He proved that he is still arguably the best heavyweight in the world with the dominant performance.
That’s huge for him and the PFL.
Cris Cyborg defeats Larissa Pacheco via unanimous decision (49-46×3)
The MMA legend captured a world title in her fifth organization. The fight was a good scrap between two of the hardest-punching women in combat sports, but Cyborg’s game was a bit more well-rounded.
She set the pace with her takedowns and landed heavy strikes throughout four of the five rounds.
Johnny Eblen defeats Fabian Edwards via unanimous decision (48-47×3)
Eblen was dominant for four rounds behind his grappling. He seemed to gas in the fifth and began to give way to Edwards’ relentless body attack. Still, the Bellator champion was able to retain and hold on to his title and remain undefeated.
Zafar Mohsen defeats Husein Kadimagomaev via unanimous decision 30-27
This fight was about as one-sided over 15 minutes as you’ll see in a bout that doesn’t end in a stoppage. Mohsen looked like Hercules and fought like him en route to the easy victory.
Paul Hughes defeats AJ McKie via split decision (29-28×2, 28-29)
Hughes was one of the biggest free agents in mixed martial arts over the past two years. On Saturday, he proved he was the real deal. He used outstanding boxing, well-placed knees, and solid scrambling to earn a split-decision win over one of the top lightweights in the world.
A case could be made for McKie winning the second and third rounds, but Hughes landed the more telling strikes, and McKie didn’t dominate as much as he would have liked in the wrestling.
Hughes called out Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov during his post-fight presser.
Overall, the card featured some strong action. However, the Saudi crowd was so quiet during most of the event that it felt as though It didn’t understand the gravity of the event.
Hopefully, these changes will continue as Saudi combat sports are here to stay.
