“At least whenever I die, I’m going to go see my kid,” Ngannou said. “I’m going to see him.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, lost his 15 month-old son Kobe back in April, just a few weeks removed from his knockout loss to former unified boxing champion Anthony Joshua in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou, 37, recently shared the tragic details behind his son’s untimely passing.
“He had some malformation on his brain, which is something that we didn’t know,” Ngannou said during a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “He passed out twice. The first time was in Cameroon, we took him to the hospital. They didn’t find anything. The second time was in [Saudi Arabia], we took him to the hospital. They ran a lot of exams, they didn’t do anything. They did the EEG, they didn’t do the [CAT] scan or MRI, because according to them, their conclusion was that he had a swollen lung. That is what was pressing his chest and stopping him from breathing and it created that thing.”
“After all those exams, they gave him some medicine, that he’s going to be okay,” Ngannou continued. “Nothing to worry about. Because at first, they even thought about asthma. They gave, like, a ventilator and then afterward, after some research they took it out. It [made me] confident. I remember just getting into Dubai and mental-wise, I’m not doing bad. Life is good. I went to the gym, maybe I should go to the club tonight. I don’t go to clubs, I don’t go out. I went to the gym to workout. I’m in the back cycling, and then I tried to call, I wanted to talk to him and I was on the bike. I called his mom and his mom didn’t pick up the phone.”
“I’m like after I’m done, I’m going to go take my shower, lay in bed and call him,” Ngannou said. “Thirty minutes after, I was on the leg machine, my phone rang and it was my little brother. He said, ‘Bro, things are not going well here.’ I’m like, ‘What is it?’ [He said], ‘Kobe, he passed out, he’s not breathing, we are at the hospital, they kicked me out from the room.’ I’m like, ‘What’s happening?’ As we are talking, he’s also trying to get information so I lost him for like three or four minutes.”
“[The nurse said], ‘Well, he’s gone.’ Just like that. He’s gone,” Ngannou explained. “What do you mean he’s gone? How come he’s gone? This kid was 15 months, he was bigger than 15 months. He was growing. He was the most joyful happy kid around. What do you mean he’s gone? Gone where? That was it. I thought I was dreaming. I thought they were going to say that’s not true. I kept calling again and everybody confirmed it. I called my mom, my mom is in tears. What the f*ck is this? That was it.”
“You get back in the apartment and see all his toys, the stuff that he was playing [with], the things that you took from him the other day and put here, it’s right there but he’s not there anymore and will never be there anymore,” Ngannou said. “If they ask you what do you want or what can comfort you, you don’t know. It’s nothing. It’s really about facing it daily, take it one at a time. At least whenever I die, I’m going to go see my kid. I’m going to see him. I’m not afraid of [death]. I still want to live but when you get to that point, to think like that. So for some way you’re looking forward for whenever that happens.”
Ngannou, who now fights for PFL, is expected to make his return to MMA in October.