Francis Ngannou’s journey to fighting superstardom has seen him go from working in gold mines as a child in his native Cameroon, to crossing the Sahara to reach Europe, to becoming the UFC heavyweight champion and fighting some of the finest boxers of his generation.
But when he fights on Saturday night, he will not only be taking on Renan Ferreira for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) Super Fights heavyweight crown, he will also be testing his desire to keep fighting after the devastating loss of his 15-month-old son Kobe earlier this year.
The mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, a soft-spoken giant who long held the record for hardest punch ever recorded at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) – equivalent to the horsepower of a family car – felt powerless after Kobe’s sudden death in April from an undiagnosed brain malformation.
As he struggled to process the loss, everything seemed meaningless and he contemplated retirement, but he decided to fight at least 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 told Al Jazeera, speaking via Zoom from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he will make his PFL debut and fight his first MMA bout in nearly three years.
“I think this [kind of loss] is something that you are never the same after,” he said. “It’s just about how to find a way to roll with it because you cannot sit around and wait for it to go away. And it’s part of you now, it’s a new life. You feel like a new person.
“[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 in the village of Batie in western Cameroon. He began working in gold mines around the age of 10 to help his impoverished family.
During that gruelling work, he dreamed about flying in a plane, owning a car and a house, and becoming a boxing champion, like his idol Mike Tyson.
By the time he was in his 20s, he decided he had to reach Europe to fulfil his dreams, and in April 2012 he set out on a perilous 5,000km (3,100-mile) journey to Morocco.
He crossed the Sahara by clinging on in the back of cramped trucks, praying they didn’t break down in the desert, and by walking long stretches. He braved searing heat by day and vicious cold at night, drank from water in which dead animals floated, and hid from the authorities and bandits.
When he reached Morocco, he repeatedly attempted to cross to Spanish territory by land and sea, finally succeeding on his seventh attempt, arriving in the Spanish exclave of Melilla a year to the day after he had left Cameroon.
After being held for nearly two months in a Spanish detention centre, he was released and made his way to Paris, where he slept in a covered parking garage until he was taken in by a gym and began to train in MMA for the first time, at the relatively late age of 26.
Ngannou learned his new trade rapidly, winning his professional debut in November 2013 and then graduating to fighting in the UFC – MMA’s premier organisation – in December 2015 and competing in his first heavyweight title fight in 2018.
Although he lost that fight to Stipe Miocic and his next bout against Derrick Lewis by unanimous decisions, he then embarked on a spectacular knockout spree, ending four fights in the first round, becoming a UFC star in the process and paving the way to a heavyweight title rematch against Miocic in March 2021, which Ngannou won via second-round knockout.
Ngannou’s last MMA fight was in January 2022, when he outclassed the much-vaunted Ciryl Gane, surprising a few people by mixing up his usual striking with an accomplished display of wrestling, to defend his UFC heavyweight title and take his MMA record to 17 wins and three losses.
He later parted ways with the UFC after a dispute about pay and fighter conditions and signed a deal to fight with the rival PFL promotion in May 2023. In the new deal, Ngannou acquired an equity stake in the PFL and a leadership role in the company, allowing him the flexibility to fight in boxing matches, as well.
He made an astonishing boxing debut in October 2023, flooring the then-unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Ngannou lost by a split decision, although many fight fans and commentators believed he had beaten Fury.
In March, Ngannou suffered a brutal dismantling in the boxing ring by Anthony Joshua and was knocked out for the first time in his career.
Still, the fights were extremely lucrative and he began to look forward to getting back to MMA and making his PFL debut, until the loss 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 also has a daughter, said.
“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 large over the 1.93m (6-foot, 4-inch) Ngannou, in a bout billed the “Battle of the Giants”.
Combat sports commentator Sean Wheelock says it’s a short-term coup for the PFL to have the high-profile Ngannou fighting on its roster, and he described Ferreira – whose professional record stands at 13 wins and three losses – as a “phenomenal fighter”.
But he says the larger question is who Ngannou would fight next, win or lose, because of a dearth of top-class heavyweights in the PFL beyond Ferreira.
“That’s going to be the really difficult part for the PFL if they want to move forward in this situation,” Wheelock told Al Jazeera.
Many MMA fans want to see Ngannou fight the UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but Wheelock said the chance of a cross-promotion fight is currently at “about zero percent” because of the UFC’s dominance of the sport.
“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 said.
And Wheelock says Ngannou is not going to significantly move the needle for the PFL in terms of challenging 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 said.
Ngannou’s career earnings have been in the millions of dollars since his acrimonious split with the UFC, and he has also said that he hopes his move will encourage other fighters to seek better pay and conditions.
However, the generally affable Ngannou bristles a little when questioned on how his PFL contract can help fighter pay more 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 said. “But that’s it, you know. I’m not a union!”
Meanwhile, his youngest brother, Michel Fomo, downplayed concerns that Ngannou could have some MMA rust after nearly three years out of the Octagon.
“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 said. “MMA is inside his DNA.”
Fomo also said that while Kobe’s death has devastated Ngannou, he thinks his brother’s retirement talk could be more down to some of the pressures of fight week and him tiring of the constant media attention.
“I don’t think this is his last fight,” Fomo said. “I see that the loss of his son gave him more reason to fight, more motivation.”
If he does retire, Ngannou has plenty of other ventures to focus on. While fighting out of Las Vegas, he also spends extended periods back in Cameroon, where he has a charitable foundation. He will also lead the PFL Africa league, set to launch in 2025, which aims to give a bigger stage to African MMA fighters.
For now, Ngannou says he’s just focusing on Saturday’s fight – after that, he’ll take some time to process everything.
When he looks back on his extraordinary life and career so far, what is he most proud of achieving?
“Everything, because everything that I have achieved [came] by resilience, by determination, by dedication,” he replied. “That’s what I owe everything to.”
