Francis Ngannou says he's not sure he'll ever fight again after the death of his son Kobe

Francis Ngannou He returned to the cage last weekend – six months after tragedy struck his family – and the combat sports superstar admits he wasn't sure if he would ever fight again.

TMZ Sports spoke with the 38-year-old former UFC champion turned boxer/PFL fighter just days after his retirement Renan Ferreira by a first-round knockout in Saudi Arabia… and then burst into tears after the fight while talking about the devastating loss of his little boy, Kobe.

“Oh yes [I didn’t know if I’d fight again]. There was a point where you didn't know anything. “Everything seemed so fragile,” Francis told us, adding that his mind was racing at full speed during this terrible time.

“They didn’t know if it was like some kind of genetic pandemic or a genetic disease. They didn't know if it was like a curse. If it were just bad luck, this would happen again and again. There was a point where, you know, like a lot of things were happening in your head, things you don't normally think about.

For Ngannou, the fight seemed easy, but mentally and emotionally it was “by far the toughest” of his career.

Ultimately, when deciding when to return to the cage, Francis concluded that the pain would never go away… so there was nothing to wait for.

“I didn't feel like there would be a time when it would go away, when everything would be okay. It's one of those things where in the beginning you just realize you'd better learn to deal with it because that's what's going to happen. “You're always going to be there.”