Background

Ngannou was born and raised in the village of Batié, Cameroon.^[6] He lived in poverty and had little formal education growing up.^[7] At 12 years old, Ngannou started working in a sand quarry in Batié because of a lack of funds.^[8] As a youngster, he was approached by various gangs in his village to join them.^[9] However, Ngannou refused and instead decided to use his father’s negative reputation as a street fighter as motivation to do something positive and pursue boxing.^[9]

At the age of 22, Ngannou began training in boxing, despite reluctance from his family in the beginning.^[9] After training for a year, Ngannou stopped training due to an illness.^[10] He did various odd jobs to make ends meet, until at the age of 26, he emigrated to Paris, France to pursue professional boxing.^[11] After Ngannou reached Paris, he had no money, no friends and no place to live.^[7] After living homeless on the streets of Paris, he began training for free in August 2013 under Didier Carmont.^[12][8] 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.^[11]

Ngannou started his MMA career mostly fighting in the French promotion 100% Fight, as well as other regional promotions in Europe.^[13]

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Ngannou made his promotional debut against fellow newcomer Luis Henrique on 19 December 2015 at UFC on Fox 17.^[14] He won the fight via knockout in the second round.^[15]

Ngannou next faced promotional newcomer Curtis Blaydes on 10 April 2016, at UFC Fight Night 86.^[16] He won the fight via TKO, due to doctors stoppage, at the conclusion of the second round.^[17]

In his next bout, Ngannou faced another newcomer in Bojan Mihajlović on 23 July 2016, at UFC on Fox 20.^[18] He won the fight via TKO in the first round.^[19] Ngannou faced Anthony Hamilton on 9 December 2016, at UFC Fight Night 102.^[20] He won the fight by submission in the first round, and earned his first UFC Performance of the Night bonus.^[21][22]

Ngannou faced Andrei Arlovski on 28 January 2017, at UFC on Fox 23.^[23] He won the fight via TKO in the first round. The win also earned Ngannou his second Performance of the Night bonus.^[24] Ngannou was expected to face Junior dos Santos on 9 September 2017 at UFC 215.^[25] However, on 18 August, Dos Santos was pulled from the match after being notified of a potential USADA violation.^[26] In turn, Ngannou was removed from the card after promotion officials deemed that a suitable opponent could not be arranged.^[27][28] In the highest profile fight of his career, Ngannou faced Alistair Overeem on 2 December 2017 at UFC 218.^[29] He won the fight via knockout in the first round.^[30]

Ngannou fought Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight title on 20 January 2018 at UFC 220.^[31] He lost the fight via unanimous decision.^[32]

Ngannou faced Derrick Lewis on 7 July 2018 at UFC 226.^[33] He lost the fight via unanimous decision. The fight was heavily criticized by the media and the fans for the lack of offence from both competitors^{[34][35][36][37]} and was labeled as “snorefest”.^[38]

Ngannou faced Curtis Blaydes in a rematch on 24 November 2018 in the main event at UFC Fight Night 141^[39] He won the fight via TKO early into the first round.^[40] The win also earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.^[41]

Ngannou headlined UFC’s inaugural event on ESPN, UFC on ESPN 1 against Cain Velasquez on 17 February 2019.^[42] He won the fight via technical knockout in the first round.^[43]

Article Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ngannou