It wasn’t Renan Ferreira’s night in Saudi Arabia last weekend.

The Brazilian heavyweight suffered a TKO defeat to Francis Ngannou in the headline fight from the PFL’s ‘Battle of the Giants’ card in Riyadh, handing the former UFC champion his first win under mixed martial arts rules in almost three years.

Ngannou employed a similar strategy against Ferreira as he did in his last outing in the cage in January 2022 against Ciryl Gane, swiftly taking down his foe before launching a fierce barrage of unanswered blows which led to the end of the fight.

And in a message posted to his Instagram Stories, Ferreira said that he is bruised following the loss but that he intends to return to the cage stronger than before.

“Hey guys, Renan ‘Problema’ here, a bit broken,” he said after translation, as noted by MMA Junkie.

“Yesterday wasn’t a good day at work, guys, but I’m very happy with all our dedication and everything that developed through our work. I’ve always had the mindset of never losing, for myself, to fight any lack of dedication and commitment, and thank God I have a clean conscience. I worked very hard there, showed up well to the fight, and was happy to return.

“Unfortunately, my opponent was superior. He managed to impose a game where that I couldn’t defend the takedowns, which led to very hard ground-and-pound to get through.”

He added: “And that’s it, life goes on, we’ll be back. I want to thank everyone for all the love and support, we’re always together. Hugs.”