Homeless to MMA Superstar
Francis Ngannou was born and raised in the
village of Batié, Cameroon. (Africa)
In a country where the average citizen makes about $1,320 per YEAR.
Ngannou lived in poverty and had little formal education growing up. At 12 years old, Ngannou started working in a sand quarry in Batié because of a lack of funds.
Francis:
"It was grueling and dangerous work, spending hours shoveling sand into the backs of trucks so it could be shipped to big cities for use in construction. Sometimes he would stand all day in water, scooping sand out of the riverbed.
"Other days would be spent at the bottom of a steep quarry, where large chunks of earth often broke free from the high cliffs and tumbled down onto workers."
Growing up Francis was approached by various gangs in his village to join them.
However he refused.
He had big dreams,
He wanted to be like his hero Mike Tyson
but that didn’t seem possible in Cameroon.
he left his country to become homeless
on the streets of Paris.
he had no money, no friends
and no place to live.
His only plan was to walk around until he located a boxing gym, then wander in and ask if someone would train him.
For most of us, that wouldn’t work out so well. For a physical specimen like Ngannou, it turned out to be a flawless strategy. Soon he found himself walking through the doors of Fernand Lopez’s MMA Factory gym.
“They looked at me and said, ‘I’m pretty sure Fernand will be very happy to see you,'” Ngannou said.
Being a fan of Mike Tyson, Ngannou was originally interested in learning how to box until his coach introduced him to the sport of MMA.
If you're not familiar with this man already
he is known for taking his opponents heads off in the first round
his punching power is tremendous!!
In fact he currently holds the world record for highest punching power ever measured at
129,161 units.
He broke the previous record set by kickboxing champ Tyrone Spong which was at 114,000 units.
Video Link:
https://instagram.com/p/Bb5IlFjlNN3/
Starting his career in French promotions
Francis later went on to make his promotional debut on December 19, 2015 at UFC on Fox 17.
Plowing through his opponents with vicious
knockouts Francis was on a 9 win steak.
Many people criticised, "it's just a hype train"
Alister Overeem was Ngannou's next opponent
Everybody thought this would be the real test.
Man did he make a statement this weekend!!
Another first round KO!
Alister Overeem is definitely no joke.
Shoutout to him for not dying from that uppercut.
To be honest I don't think Francis should
fight humans anymore, it's not fair. 😂
When asked "was this your biggest highlight of
your life" Ngannou replied "No,
my biggest highlight is still to come"
Referring to his next opponent.
Champ Stipe Miocic
Also known for his punching power!
Beating his last 4 opponents by first round KO.
This fight will fucking scare me.
Regardless of how
scary Francis is in the octagon.
He has the heart of gold outside the cage.
Sending money back to his country
paying for children's education in his hometown.
Building gyms and youth clubs
to keep kids of the streets
Many fans don't get
to see fighters behind closed doors.
Needless to say, if Ngannou were to actually become the UFC heavyweight champion, it would be an incredible story.
