At the age of ten, Francis Ngannou was working in a sand mine in Batié, a village in western Cameroon. Two decades later, he was the heavyweight champion of the UFC.
Ngannou was born in 1986. His parents separated when he was young, and he grew up in poverty, doing hard labour to help his family. He dreamed of becoming a boxer, inspired by Mike Tyson, but there was no path from Batié to the world stage.
The journey
In his mid-twenties, Ngannou left Cameroon, crossing Nigeria, Niger and the Sahara to Morocco. He spent more than a year trying to reach Europe, living rough in forests near the Spanish enclave of Melilla and being arrested and expelled several times. In 2013, he crossed the Mediterranean on a small boat to Spain. After a period in detention, he made his way to Paris.
In Paris he was homeless for a time, sleeping in a car park, before walking into a gym. A coach, Fernand Lopez, spotted his power and introduced him to mixed martial arts.
UFC
Ngannou joined the UFC in 2015 and became known for devastating knockout power. After losing his first title fight to Stipe Miocic in 2018, he rebuilt and, in March 2021, knocked out Miocic to win the heavyweight championship, becoming the first African-born UFC heavyweight champion.
In 2022, he defended the title against Ciryl Gane. He then left the UFC in a dispute over pay and freedom to box, joining the Professional Fighters League.
Fury
In October 2023, in his first professional boxing match, Ngannou fought the WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in Riyadh. Given little chance, he knocked Fury down in the third round and lost a disputed split decision. Many observers thought he had won. In March 2024 he fought Anthony Joshua and was knocked out in the second round.
Personal loss
In 2024, Ngannou’s young son, Kobe, died suddenly. He spoke publicly about his grief and returned to fight months later in the PFL, winning and dedicating the victory to his son.
Giving back
Ngannou set up a foundation and a gym in Batié to give young people in Cameroon a chance to train and study. He speaks often about migration, saying that people take dangerous journeys because they have no other way to chase their dreams.
He crossed a desert, a fence and a sea to reach a gym in Paris. The boy from the sand mine has never pretended the road was easy.
