(Ecofin Agency) – As of March 29, 2021, Francis Ngannou has been the heavyweight world champion of the UFC, the most demanding mixed martial arts league on the planet. For the Cameroonian, it is the consecration of a life marked by poverty, disease, crossings of the Sahara, but above all ambition. Indeed, after the blows of life, the blows of luck, it is this ambition that will push the Cameroonian Hercules to enter the pantheon of legends of his sport.
In Douala, the atmosphere is special this April 26. Around the city’s international airport, a crowd has gathered to wait for their champion. Francis Ngannou, the heavyweight champion of the UFC, the world’s largest mixed martial arts league, is returning home.
In Douala, the atmosphere is special this April 26.
He comes to present to his family the championship belt, acquired a month earlier. When he gets out of the plane, his shoulders are relaxed, his fists open and he sees his mother in the distance. His hand signal to the crowd triggered long minutes of jubilation. The child of the country is back
He comes to present to his family the championship belt, acquired a month earlier. When he gets out of the plane, his shoulders are relaxed, his fists open and he sees his mother in the distance. His hand signal to the crowd triggered long minutes of jubilation. The child of the country is back
This is not the first time he has returned home. But this time is special. The face of Francis Ngannou alone confirms it. This is the first time he comes back with what he left for almost 10 years ago: the championship belt.
« I feel like I missed my childhood »
Seeing him, carried in triumph and acclaimed, during a parade in the main streets of Douala, it is hard to imagine that this local golgoth was hardly known to anyone a few years ago. The surprise is even greater when one discovers that some of the streets where the parade was held, Francis Ngannou knew them as a motorcycle cab driver.
« I know where I was born, but I couldn’t say where I grew up.»
Born on September 5, 1986 in Batié, a village in western Cameroon, Francis Ngannou grew up in a poor family. The already complicated situation worsened when his parents divorced while he was still a child. He recalls that this episode even made him want to become a lawyer. “I saw how expensive the fees were”, he recalls. Only, very quickly, he will have to forget this dream and almost all the others, because life begins to put its first blows to him. He moves from one relative to another and soon he is forced to go and live with his grandmother, who was already taking care of many children. “I know where I was born, but I couldn’t say where I grew up. Every year I changed schools, changed families. I never had friends and maybe that’s what developed my lonely side”, he confides.
« Every year I changed schools and families. I never had any friends and maybe that’s what made me a loner. »
Indeed, the young boy is very lonely. At school, as well as at his grandmother’s, the other children make him feel that he is different, that he is poor and that he lacks everything. To make matters worse, he is naturally gifted with superhuman strength.
« When I shook hands with people, they would sometimes get upset »
« All I had to do was turn the handle of a door to break it or turn off a faucet so that no one could open it again until I came back. When I shook hands with people, they would sometimes get angry and ask me if I wanted to break their hand”, recalls Francis Ngannou. This uncommon strength will perhaps be the only bright spot in his childhood that will prove brief.
Indeed, at the age of 12, the young boy is obliged to go and work in a sand mine to pay his schooling. He had to spend nearly 8 hours crushing and collecting blocks of earth for a pittance. Here again, his gift helps him. While he is only 12 years old, he works with the energy of an adult. “When we were at the quarry, on his own he was replacing 2 or 3 people”, reveals in a documentary of the sports media L’Equipe, his uncle Dieudonné Kenmoe. But from then on, Francis Ngannou will never have a break, sharing his time between the mine, school and any other small job that allows him to make some money. Years later, he would confess that he felt he had missed his childhood.
« I was to die at 25 »
Spending his days between the sand mine and school, despite the times when the pay fell too late to pay for schooling, before being temporarily expelled from school, Francis Ngannou was living and began to fear for his future. “I saw young people working in that sand mine earning the same as old people who had been doing it for 20 years and it made me panic for my future,” he confides. At the same time, his father died of a long illness. Francis then remembers all the suffering accumulated by the latter to try to provide for his family. These efforts will not avoid posthumous comments derogatory to the deceased. A karate practitioner, Francis Ngannou’s father had acquired a reputation as a pugnacious street brawler, a bad reputation according to the boy’s relatives. In any case, he recalls that his father sometimes beat his brothers, sister, mother and himself. “When I was having fun with my friends, they said of me: he is violent like his father,” recalls the young man. For this, Francis Ngannou had vowed not to become a street brawler like his father.
Anyway, he remembers that his father sometimes beat his brothers, his sister, his mother and himself. “When I was playing with my friends, they used to say about me: he is violent like his father.
In his quest for honor, he decided to leave the sand quarry to unload trucks at the Mboppi market in Douala. Unfortunately, he also had to stop his studies at the age of 17. Months passed, but his financial situation did not improve. One day, an old childhood dream came back to him. Once, in admiration of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movies, he had sworn to himself to become a world champion boxer. He tries not to think about it too much, then one day the temptation is too strong. Aware of his superhuman strength, he thought that boxing could make him earn money. He decided to go for it. Either way, it didn’t mean becoming like his father. “Starting boxing at 22 was a no-win. People said I was crazy, especially since I was already a heavyweight who had never boxed in his life. When I first put the gloves on, the guys in front of me were too fast. I could not touch them and they touched me when they wanted”, says the Cameroonian.
“When I first put on the gloves, the guys in front of me were too fast. I couldn’t touch them and they touched me when they wanted to,” says the Cameroonian.
He continues to train despite the disparaging comments. Everyone thinks he’s crazy for imagining a future in a world where champions get their foot in the door at a young age. “I won my first fight though. I was so aggressive that the referee had to stop the fight. But I had to leave. Here they didn’t believe I had a future. I had to go for my chance because here they were not going to give it to me”, recalls the fighter.
« At a certain point, I decided not to be a victim of life anymore, not to suffer »
While struggling to decide what to do, at the age of 25 he was diagnosed with hepatitis B. With no money for treatment, he decided to return to his village to raise pigs and earn money to pay for his treatment. By his own admission, he saw himself losing his life, but miraculously managed to survive. He then decided to try his luck in Europe. “At some point, I decided not to be the victim of life anymore, not to suffer, to face”, he says. He left Cameroon for Nigeria, then from there he went to Algeria. From Algeria, he crosses the hell of the Sahara to Morocco. His goal was the enclave of Melilla, to cross into Spain and find himself on European territory. To get there, he had to climb three 7-meter high barbed wire fences, riddled with razor blades. Six times he failed, he was arrested and sent back to the other side of the desert. No question of giving up for the Cameroonian who ends up succeeding the 7th time.
To get there, he had to climb 3 barbed wire fences 7m high, riddled with razor blades. 6 times he failed, he was arrested and sent back to the other side of the desert. But the Cameroonian did not give up and succeeded the 7th time.
To survive in the desert, he sometimes had to drink from unsanitary wells.“I could drink that water and die. But if I didn’t drink that water, I would still die. So I drank”, Francis Ngannou confides. After all that, giving up was not an option, so despite the arrests and the return to the entrance of the Sahara, he would try again. The 7th time, he managed to evade the coast guard’s surveillance to reach the Spanish coast on an inflatable boat and reached Tarifa. Finally, he was arrested anyway and spent two months in prison for illegal entry into Spain.
The Rise of the Predator
In June 2013, a bus finally dropped him off in Paris, in a shelter. He stayed there for a while before leaving to sleep in a parking lot in the 12th arrondissement of the French capital. One day, he met Khater Yenbou, the director of the humanitarian association “La Chorba”. The latter offered him a volunteer job. Impressed by Francis Ngannou’s 1.95m and 113 kilos, he asked him to join his team to help welcome migrants. The Cameroonian accepted. In his spare time, he scoured the neighborhood and eventually found a boxing gym. He asked to be trained there. That’s how he met Didier Carmont, a boxing instructor who became one of his closest friends. Carmont listened to Francis’ story and asked the gym to train him for free. The owners accept.
For Francis Ngannou, the dream is closer than ever. But from the first training sessions, his new friend says something amazing to him. “I see you and the way you move, that charisma, you should try MMA”.
But from the very first training sessions, his new friend says something amazing to him. “I see you and the way you move, that charisma, you should try MMA”.
A little taken by surprise, Francis Ngannou accepts before asking what MMA is. It’s mixed martial arts, a combat sport that mixes striking techniques with feet and fists with wrestling and submission techniques on the ground. Didier Carmont took his Cameroonian friend to a gym called “MMA Factory”. The child of Batié met his first trainer there: Fernand Lopez Owonyebe. A true visionary, the latter trained the first MMA talents even before its practice was legalized in France. “I saw that there had been precariousness in his life. I gave him a bag and clothes as I often do in these cases “, confides the coach who will teach the basics of MMA to the Cameroonian. Yet he does not yet distinguish Francis Ngannou from the smooth talkers who arrive at his room and promise wonders before giving up at the first obstacles. But the first training session will clearly set things up.
“I don’t remember ever meeting someone so strong in the rawest sense of the word”, Fernand Lopez confides to his entourage after their first training. He trains the Cameroonian and takes him to fight abroad after a few fights of pancrace, a discipline close to MMA. Francis made his MMA debut with a victory and went on to attract the attention of scouts from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the most famous and highest ranked American MMA league. Francis made his debut there in 2015, racked up 4 wins and earned the nickname “The Predator”.
2016 marks a milestone in his life. After months of tightening his belt, the Cameroonian managed to send $30,000 to his older brother so he could buy a tractor and take care of the rest of the family. “Where I come from, owning a tractor is one of the main signs of pride”, confides an emotional Francis Ngannou, on social networks.
After months of tightening his belt, the Cameroonian managed to send $30,000 to his older brother so he could buy a tractor and take care of the rest of the family. “Where I come from, owning a tractor is one of the main signs of pride.
From then on, he never returned to poverty and lived a life of luxury. With each victory in the UFC, Francis Ngannou became the main challenger of the world heavyweight champion and true living legend of the sport Stipe Miocic. The Americans will nevertheless triumph too easily of the Cameroonian in their first confrontation in 2018.
New crossing of the desert before the consecration
After the defeat against Stipe Miocic, disputes between Francis Ngannou and his coach will undermine the atmosphere between the two men. Fernand Lopez declared that Francis was difficult to coach because of his ego. The Cameroonian does not support the statement and the two men stop working together despite the long history and friendship that binds them. Nevertheless, despite statements in the press, they continue to keep respect for each other. Francis Ngannou also lost, against all odds, another fight. He then suffers many criticisms in the American and French press that recall his ego problem. Francis Ngannou then left for Las Vegas to join the Xtreme Couture stable. With a new coach and a new team, the Cameroonian resumed his ascent. He knows the desert crossings and he knows how to get out of them. His relations with the UFC are frosty, but in a few fights, Francis reminds everyone that he is special.
« I had to go and get my chance because they weren’t going to give it to me here ».
He staggered American Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds, former world champion Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds, Brazilian legend Junior Dos Santos in 71 seconds.
He staggered American Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds, former world champion Cain Velasquez in 26 seconds, Brazilian legend Junior Dos Santos in 71 seconds.
In 2019, Francis Ngannou beats Surinamese Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 20 seconds. He rants and raves for another chance against Stipe Miocic. He gets it 2 years later. The UFC schedules the fight for March 27, 2021. The atmosphere is different. This time, specialists fear for the physical integrity of the American champion, as Francis Ngannou seems monstrously fit. “Francis will brutalize him”, warns Fernand Lopez, his former coach. The prediction comes true. After dominating the first round, Francis Ngannou spreads his opponent with a right at the beginning of the second round. It was over. The defeat is forgotten. The trials and tribulations of the desert too: Francis Ngannou is the MMA world champion. He finally made it. He exults and thanks his opponent. “It brings out the best in me”, confides the Cameroonian. At this moment, does he think of his father, all the sacrifices, his brief childhood …
Cameroon exults. The victory is making the rounds of the media in the country and even on the continent. It is important to know that MMA is more and more watched in Africa. Normal when you notice that African champions dominate 3 categories in the UFC. If the Cameroonian Francis Ngannou dominates the heavyweight category, the Nigerian Israel Adesanya dominates the middleweight category, while another Nigerian, Kamaru Usman, dominates the welterweight category. On the continent, it is clear that Africa, a continent where people learn to fight early, has a card to play in MMA. Some countries are already launching national leagues. Francis Ngannou, the figurehead of this African revolution in MMA, seems happier than ever since he won the title. “There is no place where I feel safer than in the cage [MMA fighting octagon; ed. note]“, he confides.
“If there are no incidents of course, Francis could write the history of MMA”, said his first coach, a few years ago. Indeed, the history of the Cameroonian is on the march and with it that of all Africa in MMA.
By Servan Ahougnon. Translated by CamerExcellence
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