Ex-UFC star Francis Ngannou tormented by ‘sleepless nights’, as he details what really happened in fatal motorcycle accident with 17-year-old girl

Francis Ngannou has opened up about the torment he is suffering since his involvement in the death of a 17-year-old girl. 

The MMA and boxing star crashed into Brigitte Ntsama while riding his motorbike in Yaounde, Cameroon on Easter weekend earlier this year.

He rushed her to Yaounde General Hospital with what he says was a broken leg and the teenager later died following complications in surgery, according to the 38-year-old.

Ngannou broke his silence about the accident in May, saying he was helping the family of Ntsama and sending his condolences. 

He’s now spoken at length about the tragedy, telling the Ariel Helwani show: ‘I was going by my mother’s place and I get to this, it was like on the boulevard, and I saw this girl trying to cross the street.

‘But I noticed that she didn’t look, because I saw her and it was like a three-way lane side of road, but I noticed that she didn’t see. I wanted to go behind her because she was walking fast. Problem is that last minute she turned around and she saw me and she froze there. 

‘I had a few seconds, and I hit her with the left side of my motorcycle because I was almost past, and I was like 300 yards away from a police station. I didn’t even fall off the motorcycle, but she fell, so I’m like, “Should I go report this?” But she’s laying on the floor. I parked my motorcycle, go there, carry her, put her in the taxi, and then follow her to the hospital. 

‘We get in the hospital. I took her outside. She has a tibia fracture, but I took her out of the car, and she was aware now and in pain, which was a good sign.’

Ngannou went on: ‘I took her to the emergency room. They reassured me everything is good, but I still stayed there for like two hours until people came. 

‘I left, was reassured that everything was good. I mean, not good because she’s hurt, but I’m like, “Oh, it wasn’t the worst. It could have been worse than this.” 

‘And every day they were telling me, I was having the follow-up like, “Oh, she’s good.” Because the same night, her family came there, and she was good for the next two days, and they were prepping her surgery. 

‘She went for the surgery and never woke up. And just like that [she died]. I’m like, “How come? What’s happened?”‘

Ngannou has endured a huge amount of heartbreak over the last couple of years. 

His 15-month-old son Kobe died from a brain malformation almost 12 months before the motorbike accident and he admitted he is having trouble sleeping. 

‘So, now over sleepless nights, dealing with all this, thinking of what you could have done, or should have done, how could you, what would you have done to avoid that, it’s a really bad feeling’, he reflected. 

Ngannou says the family of Ntsama recognised that although he was at least partially at fault for the traffic accident, he paid for medical expenses and repeatedly showed care for the victim in the aftermath. 

The fighter added: ‘They (the family) even say, “okay, we know that he was in the accident, but we saw how you fight for our daughter.”‘

The former UFC heavyweight champion – who has since lost in the boxing ring against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua – was last in action in October 2024. 

He knocked out Renan Ferreira and is now in exploratory talks to jump back to boxing and face Deontay Wilder.