Francis Ngannou’s journey to preventing superstardom has seen him go from working in gold mines as a baby in his native Cameroon, to crossing the Sahara to achieve Europe, to changing into the UFC heavyweight champion and preventing a number of the best boxers of his technology.
However when he fights on Saturday evening, he won’t solely be taking up Renan Ferreira for the Skilled Fighters League (PFL) Tremendous Fights heavyweight crown, he can even be testing his need to maintain preventing after the devastating lack of his 15-month-old son Kobe earlier this yr.
The combined martial arts (MMA) fighter, a soft-spoken big who lengthy held the file for hardest punch ever recorded on the Final Preventing Championship (UFC) – equal to the horsepower of a household automotive – felt powerless after Kobe’s sudden demise in April from an undiagnosed mind malformation.
As he struggled to course of the loss, every thing appeared meaningless and he contemplated retirement, however he determined to combat at the least yet one more time for Kobe, who he had named after the late Los Angeles Lakers NBA star Kobe Bryant.
“It’s motivation that I really wish I wouldn’t have had, but, unfortunately, that’s my motivation today,” the 38-year-old informed Al Jazeera, talking through Zoom from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the place he’ll make his PFL debut and combat his first MMA bout in almost three years.
“I think this [kind of loss] is something that you are never the same after,” he stated. “It’s nearly the best way to discover a technique to roll with it, since you can not sit round and look forward to it for it to go away. And it’s a part of you now, it’s a brand new life. You are feeling like a brand new individual.
“[That’s why] I think this fight will serve for me to discover myself again, to see where I am in terms of life, in terms of competition, to see if I still have it, to see if I can continue fighting.”
‘Just keep going’
Ngannou was born and raised within the village of Batie in western Cameroon. He started working in gold mines across the age of 10 to assist his impoverished household.
Throughout that gruelling work, he dreamed about flying in a airplane, proudly owning a automotive and a home, and changing into a boxing champion, like his idol Mike Tyson.
By the point he was in his 20s, he determined he needed to attain Europe to fulfil his desires, and in April 2012 he set out on a deadly 5,000km (3,100-mile) journey to Morocco.
He crossed the Sahara by clinging on behind cramped vehicles, praying they didn’t break down within the desert, and by strolling lengthy stretches. He braved searing warmth by day and harsh chilly at evening, drank from water by which useless animals floated, and hid from the authorities and bandits.
When he reached Morocco, he repeatedly tried to cross to Spanish territory by land and sea, lastly succeeding on his seventh try, arriving within the Spanish exclave of Melilla a yr to the day after he had left Cameroon.
After being held for almost two months in a Spanish detention centre, he was launched and made his technique to Paris, the place he slept in a coated parking storage till he was taken in by a fitness center and commenced to coach in MMA for the primary time, on the comparatively late age of 26.
Ngannou discovered his new commerce quickly, successful his skilled debut in November 2013 after which graduating to preventing within the UFC – MMA’s premier organisation – in December 2015 and competing in his first heavyweight title combat in 2018.
Though he misplaced that combat to Stipe Miocic and his subsequent bout towards Derrick Lewis by unanimous selections, he then launched into a spectacular knockout spree, ending 4 fights within the first spherical, changing into a UFC star within the course of and paving the best way to a heavyweight title rematch towards Miocic in March 2021, which Ngannou received through second-round knockout.
Ngannou’s final MMA combat was in January 2022, when he outclassed the much-vaunted Cyril Gane, stunning a number of folks by mixing up his standard hanging with an completed show of wrestling, to defend his UFC heavyweight title and take his MMA file to 17 wins and three losses.
He later parted methods with the UFC after a dispute about pay and fighter circumstances and signed a deal to combat with the rival PFL promotion in Might 2023. Within the new deal, Ngannou acquired an fairness stake within the PFL and a management position within the firm, permitting him the pliability to combat in boxing matches, as properly.
He made an astonishing boxing debut in December 2023, flooring the then-unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Ngannou misplaced by a cut up choice, though many combat followers and commentators believed he had crushed Fury.
In March, Ngannou suffered a brutal dismantling within the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua and was knocked out for the primary time in his profession.
Nonetheless, the fights had been extraordinarily profitable and he started to stay up for getting again to MMA and making his PFL debut, till the lack of Kobe upended his life.
“You just wake up every day and face it and deal with whatever it is; your emotions, also your responsibility, because how you feel doesn’t take away your responsibility as a man,” Ngannou, who additionally has a daughter, stated.
“So, there’s not a better way. Just keep going and find out [how to cope] along the way.”
‘Battle of the Giants’
On Saturday, Ngannou fights Ferreira, a 34-year-old, 2.03m (6-foot, 8-inch) colossus from Brazil, who even looms massive over the 1.93m (6-foot, 4-inch) Ngannou, in a bout billed the “Battle of the Giants”.
Fight sports activities commentator Sean Wheelock says it’s a short-term coup for the PFL to have the high-profile Ngannou preventing on its roster, and he described Ferreira – whose skilled file stands at 13 wins and three losses – as a “phenomenal fighter”.
However he says the bigger query is who Ngannou would combat subsequent, win or lose, due to a dearth of top-class heavyweights within the PFL past Ferreira.
“That’s going to be the really difficult part for the PFL if they want to move forward in this situation,” Wheelock informed Al Jazeera.
Many MMA followers need to see Ngannou combat the UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, however Wheelock stated the prospect of a cross-promotion combat is at the moment at “about zero percent” due to the UFC’s dominance of the game.
“I just don’t think that that would be realistic in this stage, because I don’t know how it would possibly benefit the UFC or why they would be motivated to do it,” he stated.
And Wheelock says Ngannou shouldn’t be going to considerably transfer the needle for the PFL by way of difficult the supremacy of the UFC.
“If their aspiration is to be number two in MMA, and be a very successful number two but still have a massive gap between themselves and the UFC, I think that is realistic,” he stated.
Ngannou’s profession earnings have been within the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} since his acrimonious cut up with the UFC, and he has additionally stated that he hopes his transfer will encourage different fighters to hunt higher pay and circumstances.
Nevertheless, the widely affable Ngannou bristles a bit when questioned on how his PFL contract may also help fighter pay extra broadly.
“I’m not going to be negotiating people’s contracts. They have their managers. But what I said is that I do what I can to try to educate and try to speak for them when I have the opportunity,” he stated. “But that’s it, you know. I’m not a union!”
In the meantime, his youngest brother, Michel Fomo, downplayed considerations that Ngannou may have some MMA rust after almost three years out of the Octagon cage.
“When your brother steps into the cage or fights, it’s normal to be nervous, so I’m kind of nervous. But you also know everything’s going to play out well. He’s a predator and he’s just getting back to what he’s used to,” Fomo stated. “MMA is inside his DNA.”
Fomo additionally stated that whereas Kobe’s demise has devastated Ngannou, he thinks his brother’s retirement discuss may very well be extra all the way down to a number of the pressures of combat week and him tiring of the fixed media consideration.
“I don’t think this is his last fight,” Fomo stated. “I see that the loss of his son gave him more reason to fight, more motivation.”
If he does retire, Ngannou has loads of different ventures to concentrate on. Whereas preventing out of Las Vegas, he additionally spends prolonged intervals again in Cameroon, the place he has a charitable basis. He can even lead the PFL Africa league, set to launch in 2025, which goals to present an even bigger stage to African MMA fighters.
For now, Ngannou says he’s simply specializing in Saturday’s combat – after that, he’ll take a while to course of every thing.
When he seems again on his extraordinary life and profession thus far, what’s he most pleased with reaching?
“Everything, because everything that I have achieved [came] by resilience, by determination, by dedication,” he replied. “That’s what I owe everything to.”
