Francis Ngannou’s coach responds to accusations that first-round KO was the result of illegal shots… ‘This guy must owe [the ref] money’

‘The Predator’ scored a vicious first-round knockout in his return to MMA action last night, stopping 6’ 8” opponent Renan Ferreira with some of the most brutal ground-and-pound you’ll ever see in the heavyweight division.

Whilst Francis Ngannou’s performance was indeed highly impressive, there was some controversy over the finishing sequence as it appeared as though several of his insanely powerful shots landed on the back of Renan Ferreira’s head.

Photo by Mohammed Saad/Anadolu via Getty ImagesFrancis Ngannou’s head coach responds to PFL: Battle of the Giants controversyIf you scroll through social media today, it won’t be long before you come across Ferreira fans claiming that Ngannou’s victory last night was simply the result of him landing a series of illegal strikes to the back of the Brazilian’s head.

In fact, some fans are even making an argument that ‘The Predator’ should have been disqualified from the contest entirely over the strikes.

Ngannou needs to be disqualified

All of those finishing strikes were to the back of Renan’s head #PFLSuperFights

— Casual MMA (@CasualMMAinc) October 19, 2024 View Tweet

NGANNOU GETS THE KO OVER FERRERIA IN ROUND ONE! GETS A TAKEDOWN AND FERREIRA HAS NOTHING! #NgannouFerreira

HUGE BACK OF THE HEAD SHOTS OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR THE FINISH FOR NGANNOU!

Worried for Ferreria for sure though he took like 5 solid shots right to the back of the head

— THE MMA GURU (@THATBOYMMAGURU) October 19, 2024 View Tweet

“I didn’t even hear or see any of that, to be honest with you,” stated head coach Eric Nicksick in conversation with MMA Junkie, before quickly noting that there’s also an argument that the fight should’ve already been stopped by the time that those final punches connected.

“I mean if it was then I’d have to see when it was but arguably that fight could have been stopped a lot sooner… I don’t know when those strikes occurred, I’ve seen some of the replays and I’ve not been like ‘Oh those were on the back of the head or anything like that’.

Nicksick admitted that he’d already jumped to his feet when Ngannou started landing his vicious ground-and-pound as he expected referee Dan Miragliotta to quickly wave it off when he saw the damage that Ferreira was sustaining.

PFL: Israel Adesanya reacts to Francis Ngannou’s vicious first-round knockout to claim heavyweight titleWeird stoppage. Some back of the head punches?? Good for Ngannou in any case.

— It’s royal in his blood 🇧🇫 (@abdel_jalil93) October 19, 2024 View Tweet

“I hopped up at one point because I thought it was over, I was like ‘It’s over’ and then Dan’s like [carry on] … Like ‘This guy must owe Dan money’, so I sat back down and watched him take a whooping [instead].”

Just before the finishing sequence, Renan Ferreira threw up several submission attempts from his back and whilst Nicksick was concerned about the tightness of the initial triangle, he knew that it wouldn’t be long before Ngannou opened up from the top position.

Ngannou won by 2 big back of the head strikes but WE DONT CARE 😂

— maarteng afam (@TheKornett) October 19, 2024 View Tweet

“I would say that the triangle was the one thing we were kind of looking at, and then the triangle transitioned into a leg lock or heal hook. But once he postured up and I saw where his posture was with his knee draped across his face-…

“I was just thinking about how many times Francis has been on top of me and I’m taking ground-and-pound from Francis. He’s being nice to me, if he’s draped the knee across the dude’s face and then [started] hammerfisting, he’s going to get out.”

REVEALED: Jake Paul gushes over Francis Ngannou after heavyweight lands dominant first round win in MMA comeback

Coach Nicksick reveals rib injury almost cost Francis Ngannou the fightAfter the fight came to its brutal if not slightly controversial conclusion, Ngannou would reveal that he’d been training for the PFL Super Fight with an injured rib.

Addressing how severe the injury was, coach Nicksick explained how it did cause Ngannou a significant amount of pain, but not enough for ‘The Predator’ to seriously consider withdrawing.

“It was bad enough to where you’ve got to think, he blew out his knee and wasn’t going to pull out of the Ciryl Gane fight, but there’s a difference… Different stakes yeah, but it was a different type of pain for him.

“Obviously, we had a very grappling-heavy game plan, but he was worried that if he was put on his back, how he would move and grapple with an injured rib… But once he went to the doctors and they cleared him on the MRI, I think he realized ‘I’m going to be okay, I’m going to get through this’.”

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