Refugee’s journey from Cameroon to UFC champion
LAST Saturday, Cameroon-born Francis Ngannou defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight belt for the first time against a former sparring partner, Ciryl Gane, during UFC 270 at the Honda Center, California.
For Ngannou fans in attendance and those streaming online, witnessing the heavyweight belt being wrapped around “The Predator’s” waist was the perfect end to an eventful evening as it meant success for a job well done.
However, for those back home in Cameroon and more so for the people in his hometown of Batie, it meant hope, determination and a strong will to achieve anything no matter the circumstances you are born into.
The road to becoming the UFC heavyweight champion of the world and claim the honours of being known as the baddest man on the planet was no ordinary one for Ngannou, whose journey meant a 5 000km trek across the Sahara desert through Nigeria, Niger and Algeria as well as a boat trip on an inflatable raft from Tangier, Morocco, across to Spain.
In an interview with ESPN, Ngannou admitted he knew how the system worked and understood that once he had reached Spain, he’d be sent to jail for two months before being released to a foundation that assists African refugees.
In what he describes as “14 months in hell”, Ngannou clearly understood the deadly risks for a better life before eventually reaching Paris, where his pursuit for happiness and goal to become a world champion boxer had begun.
It had been around June 2013 and Ngannou was walking around with less than €50 in his pocket. With nothing to his name besides the clothes he wore, Ngannou found shelter in an empty parking lot and lived under a stairwell.
Next, he found a nearby boxing gym where he approached one of the assistant coaches who was on duty at
the time, Didier Carmont, and asked if he could join them.
“I have no money … All I want is a place to train because I want to become a world champion,” Ngannou told the coach.
Carmont befriended the newcomer, took him under his wing and became the lifeline that Ngannou desperately needed. Carmont convinced the head coach to allow Ngannou to train for free, and as Carmont slowly learnt more about the Cameroonian’s situation, he also assisted him by buying Ngannou a new pair of shoes and his first smartphone.
“He helped me get clothes, shoes, and shelter when I didn’t have anything … He gave me my first apartment in Paris when I was homeless and
provided me guidance and mentorship about my future life,” Ngannou said in a social media post.
“I cannot thank him enough for everything he is to me and everything he has done for me,” he said.
After settling in, Carmont suggested Ngannou take on Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as there was no future for him in the sport of boxing in France and no way to make a living from it.
At the time, the 26-year-old had no idea what MMA was and despite having his eyes firmly set on becoming a world champion in the noble art, he would later give it a try when the boxing gym closed for two months.
August 2013: this was the start of Ngannou’s MMA career after stepping into the MMA Factory gym where
head coach Fernand Lopez, a fellow Cameroonian, gave him his first taste of grappling, wrestling and kickboxing.
Not long after, The Predator made his professional MMA debut on November 30 during a tournament in Paris called the 100% Fight: Contenders 20, where Ngannou won his first fight by submission then lost in his second bout.
By this time, Ngannou was hooked on MMA and despite the loss, he took up the challenge to learn more about the sport which he did not understand or even know the rules to.
Remembering that first pro fight in Paris, a nervous Ngannou, who was not familiar with what he could and couldn’t do to his opponent, recalls telling himself in the locker room before walking out that “it’s just a fight between two people”. Looking further back to his childhood days, Ngannou believes he gets his fighting spirit from his father, who was known in their village as a ruthless fighter.
His parents got divorced when he was 6, but through many interactions with people in the village, he learnt that his father was someone who would fight four to five gang members at a time and come out victorious.
On December 19, 2015, The Predator made his UFC debut after just two years of training while most of his peers would have grown up doing some form of martial arts before transitioning to MMA.
Ngannou made a statement on day one and finished his first fight against another newcomer, Luis Henrique, with a second-round TKO before going on a six-fight winning streak and ultimately challenging for the belt against Stipe Miocic.
The champion at the time, Miocic exposed flaws in an inexperienced Ngannou’s ground game to put a halt to his world champion dream and handed him his first loss in the UFC.
Being inches close to achieving the impossible, Ngannou went back to the drawing board to rectify and improve on these flaws, but took another loss in his next fight.
He knew some more changes were needed in order to cross the finish line and in the next months he began to train in Las Vegas, where he now lives in a two-storey house.
The Predator soon regained his confidence and bounced back with four consecutive wins over highly skilled opponents, which included former champions, before facing Miocic for a second time.
However, this time, a more patient, more skilled Ngannou had stepped into the Octagon and he finished the Croatian, who is considered to be the greatest UFC heavyweight fighter of all time, by knockout in under two rounds to realise his dream of becoming a world champion. |