The Professional Fighters League (PFL) presented what may have been its biggest card ever on Saturday afternoon in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

That was due in large part to the colossal main event, which saw former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou return to MMA to take on 2023 PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira. It was a hugely important fight for the division — Ngannou was still the sport's lineal heavyweight champion ahead of time — and it was arguably the most talked about fight in PFL history.

The co-main event was also a big one, as Bellator featherweight champ Cris Cyborg took on two-season PFL champ Larissa Pacheco. It was one of the biggest fights that could be made in women's MMA.

Bellator middleweight champ Johnny Eblen also returned to action on the card, defending his belt in a rematch with Fabian Edwards, the brother of UFC champ Leon Edwards.

Scroll on for the complete results of this stacked PFL card, and a rundown of the biggest winners and losers of the night.

PFL Super Fights: Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Fereira Live Results

Main Card | 4 p.m. ET on ESPN + PPV

Francis Ngannou def. Renan Ferreira by KO at 3:32 of round one

Cris Cyborg def. Larissa Pacheco by unanimous decision (49-46 x3)

Johnny Eblen def. Fabian Edwards by unanimous decision (48-47 x3)

Zafar Mohsen def. Husein Kadimagomaev by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)

Paul Hughes def. AJ McKee by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)

Preliminary Card | 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN +

Raufeon Stots def. Marcos Breno via sub (rear-naked choke) at 3:01 of round three

Makkasharip Zaynukov def. Dedrek Sanders via unanimous decision (30-26x3)

Ibragim Ibragimov def. Nacho Campos by unanimous decision (30-27x3)

Taha Bendaoud def. Tariq Ismail by submission (triangle choke) at 3:51 of round two

Winner: Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

There's no two ways about it: Moroccan featherweight Taha Bendaoud was getting beat up by Tariq Ismail in the opening bout of Saturday's PFL card. He absorbed a ton of punishment through the first round, and as he lay on his back underneath his foe in the middle of the second, looked like he was just about cooked.

Not by a long shot, it turns out.

In a performance that's already being called a comeback of the year contender, Bendaoud snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by tapping Ismail with a triangle choke from bottom position.

"It's almost like [Ismail] didn't think there was danger there [in that position] because his opponent was starting to break," commentator Dan Hardy said after the finish.

"Taha Bendaoud was unable to get anything going until he did with that big submission," added Hardy's broadcast partner Sean O'Connell.

With the stunning comeback victory, Bendaoud is now 4-0. He seems to have a bright future, but just a few months shy of his 30th birthday, will need to get moving if he hopes to become a serious contender while he's still in his prime.

Loser: Losing the Plot

There's no questioning that the PFL has the second best MMA roster in the world behind the UFC, and that roster was on full display on Saturday. Unfortunately, the quality of the organization's talent is sometimes overshadowed by poor pacing and bizarre decisions on its broadcasts. Both those things were an issue again on Saturday, most notably on the undercard, when fight fans were inexplicably subjected to several minutes of chummy banter between NFL legends Ray Lewis and Rob Gronkowski.

I don't know enough about football to comment on either guy's legacy in their sport. What I do know is that I don't really care what they have to say about fights — particularly when we already have former PFL champ Sean O'Connell, former two-division UFC champ Randy Couture, and former UFC title challenger Dan Hardy on the broadcast. These three guys are real MMA experts who have thoroughly researched the fighters on the card, so why are we listening to two football players with casual knowledge of the sport provide analysis?

It baffles. Maybe the PFL thinks having a couple of NFL legends on the broadcast will boost ratings, but I doubt it. After all, no fight fan is going to tune into a football game just because Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz are breaking down plays.

Maybe if they had refrained from slowing down their broadcast with this kind of fluff, Raufeon Stot's third-round submission win over Marcos Breno wouldn't have ended right when the main card was supposed to start, and he would have gotten the post-fight interview he deserved. Either way, the PFL continues to lose the plot when it comes to the pace and content of its broadcasts.

Winner: Keeping the Hype Train on the Rails

Outside of the three title fights atop Saturday's PFL lineup, the biggest fight on the bill was clearly a lightweight scrap pitting AJ McKee against Paul Hughes. McKee is a former Bellator featherweight champ and one of the best fighter's in the promotion's history. Hughes, meanwhile, is a former Cage Warriors featherweight champ and entered the PFL Smart Cage for the first time as one of the hottest MMA prospects in the world.

In the end, Hughes absolutely lived up to his hype. While his split-decision win suggests he had a very close fight with McKee, most people seem to agree that he handled his American rival pretty clearly. Not only did he nearly finish McKee on several occasions, but he also landed more strikes, and completed both takedowns he attempted in the fight.

"I think it was pretty clear I won that one," he told commentator Brett Okamoto after the fight. "I nearly had him out of there a few times."

With the win over McKee, who had lost just once in 23 previous fights, Hughes immediately stands out as one of the top lightweights under the PFL-Bellator umbrella. Time will tell how matchmakers want to handle his rise, but if he gets his way, it will be a fight with lightweight champ Usman Nurmagomedov next.

One way or the other, his hype train is firmly on the rails.

"The PFL believed in me and look at me now," he said. "Here I am, a young kid from rural Ireland, on the big stage."

Loser: Backing Up the Talk

Heading into the first of Saturday's three title fights, Bellator middleweight champ Johnny Eblen claimed that he and Sean Strickland are the two best middleweights in the world. It was a bold claim, and it wasn't the first time he's made it, either.

For that claim to be true, Eblen needs to be better than the likes of UFC middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis, who beat Strickland earlier this year, not to mention the likes of Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker. For now, it's impossible to say for sure if any of that is true, but Eblen had a chance to strengthen his argument in his fight with Fabian Edwards.

While he ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision after completing a slew of takedowns over five grueling rounds, it's safe to say he didn't really back up his talk. He had already beaten Edwards once, by stoppage, and this time beat him much less decisively, arguably losing a round or two.

"I kind of faded a little bit," he admitted in his post-fight interview. "It's a seven-hour time difference from where I'm at. I came out about 10 days early. I think I needed to come out a little earlier.

"I'm pretty satisfied. I wish I could have ended him again.

"Fabian's a top-level guy. He's one of the best in the world."

Considering Eblen also dealt with patches of adversity in his recent split-decision win over PFL champ Impa Kasanganay, it's fair to say his "best in the world" claim isn't currently holding a lot of water.

Maybe he is the best middleweight on earth. He's certainly one of them. But after his latest win over Edwards, he definitely has more work to do to prove it.

Winner: A Living Legend

Cris Cyborg's legacy is set in stone. She has already won major MMA titles in Strikeforce, Invicta, the UFC, and Bellator, and in Saturday's co-main event, collected a PFL Super Fights belt by defeating Larissa Pachecho.

By this point, her trophy case has got to be almost full.

Of course, it bears mentioning that Pachecho didn't make it easy for Cyborg. That's no surprise. At 30 years old, the former two-time, two-division PFL champion is nine years' her countrywoman's junior, and as the cage-side commentators repeatedly pointed out, they bear many similarities, as well-rounded fighters who can finish on the feet and the mat.

The fact is, Cyborg basically beat a younger version of herself, and at 39, and with a long and illustrious career behind her, it's impressive she's still winning at all.

"You cannot overstate the impact she's had on the sport, in women's MMA in particular, and she's still on top of the sport at 39," commentator Sean O'Connell said after Cyborg's win, summing up the situation very well.

While Cyborg is clearly still at the top of the game, it's also clear that she's nearing the end of her career. In her post-fight interview, she stated that she likely has two fights left in MMA.

In other words, we should enjoy this living legend while we have her.

Winner: The One True King

Heading into Saturday's PFL card, Francis Ngannou remained the lineal MMA heavyweight champion, which is more significant than a lot of people realize. I think Erik Magraken, a lawyer who specializes in combat sports, said it best on X.

"A lineal claim follows the fighter," he explained. "It does not belong to a promoter. It is a claim that belongs to the fighter. A real title. Francis earned it. It's his until someone beats him."

In addition to the lineal MMA title, Ngannou's main event fight with Renan Fereira would also decide the lineal UFC, PRIDE, Strikeforce, Bellator, DREAM, IFL, EliteXC, WAMMA, and YAMMA Pit Fighting heavyweight titles. Make no mistake about it: this fight was for MMA's true heavyweight crown, contrary to everything UFC promotional material will tell us in the lead-up to next month's Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic title fight.

Ngannou is still the sole owner of that crown.

Just as he has done so many times before, the Cameroonian-born Frenchman erased his hulking foe in quick and brutal fashion, first taking him down with an ever improving wrestling game, then finishing him off with a shower of ground punches that may as well have been meteor strikes.

It was an extremely impressive performance, in part because Ngannou's boxing career has kept him out of the MMA cage for several years, and even more so because he lost his young son Kobe in the lead-up to the fight.

"The past two days were very tough," a teary-eyed Ngannou said in a gut-wrenching post-fight interview. "There was a lot of emotion. I couldn't do anything without thinking of him.

"I hope they remember his name. Without Kobe, I wouldn't be here tonight."

"Please remember by son Kobe."

There is no question MMA fans will remember Kobe, just as they'll remember his father, the true king of the sport's most dangerous weight class.