Renan Ferreira reached out to PFL opponent Francis Ngannou to clear the air after a remark made throughout Thursday’s press convention in Washington D.C. was interpreted as Ferreira saying their struggle could be harder than Ngannou shedding his 15-month-old son.
In one among his first solutions on the press convention, Ferreira mentioned the previous UFC champion was having a tough yr — referring to his boxing losses to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, plus the time away from MMA — nevertheless the PFL translator sitting subsequent to him translated his quotes as, “Francis has been going by means of a troublesome yr in his life.” The “in his life” half was by no means mentioned in Portuguese, and it led to criticism on social media.
“There was a foul misinterpretation of the whole lot I mentioned,” Ferreira instructed MMA Combating. “I used to be referring to a foul yr in combating, him coming off two losses in boxing and a very long time with out combating in MMA, so I mentioned I used to be going to be a giant drawback in combating, nevertheless it was interpreted as me getting private. I might by no means do this. I’m a father as effectively, I’ve two children, and I felt his loss. I had already despatched him my condolences.”
Ferreira mentioned his workforce reached out to Ngannou after the controversy kicked up on-line to elucidate what he actually meant together with his remark, and mentioned “at no level Francis interpreted that [otherwise].” The 2 heavyweights are scheduled to face off in the primary occasion of the PFL Tremendous Fights pay-per-view present on Oct. 19 in Saudi Arabia.
“He is aware of the respect I’ve for him, similar to he respects me lots,” Ferreira mentioned. “He is aware of I might by no means contact such a fragile subject like this, and it’s all good now. I might by no means go that low to advertise a struggle, say a struggle could be greater than the sensation of shedding a son or family members, or anybody for that matter. What I mentioned was about his profession as an athlete and the 2 losses he’s had and the whole lot he’s going by means of as an athlete. I might by no means go private like that.”
