Francis Ngannou, former undocumented in Paris who became a world MMA star

Published on : 22/01/2022 – 17:02Modified : 22/01/2022 – 17:22

“Determined”. It is the adjective that comes up most often in the mouths of those who have crossed his path. Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, dubbed the strongest man in the world since winning the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) MMA world heavyweight title in 2021, could have been discouraged more than once. time. But, despite the multitude of obstacles between his native country and France, he discovered the sport that made him a rich man in 2015.

With each fight, the sportsman who now lives in Los Angeles, pockets more than 500,000 dollars (470,000 euros). Luxury watch, villa and beautiful American car. Far from him the time when he slept in an old Range Rover abandoned in the corner of an underground car park in Paris. A period of which he testifies on social networks to recall what he endured, without mentioning the most painful details. However, “if my 18-year-old brother wanted to go to Europe, I would tell him not to. I know the risks involved too well,” he told InfoMigrants in 2018.

childhood demons

Arrived on a Sunday in the summer of 2013 in the French capital, undocumented and penniless, Francis Ngannou was then 27 years old. Very quickly, he prefers the street to the home for migrants, which he finds “dirty and unhealthy” and where “he feels too much negativity”. “I didn’t want to be discouraged,” he told Infomigrants. Because the young Cameroonian has an idea in mind: boxing at all costs. It is for this reason that he left Cameroon a year earlier, without knowing where he was going to land in Europe.

Colossus of 1.93 m for more than 110 kg, his stature impresses. He discovered boxing in a small club in Douala at the age of 22. It will be an outlet for him, a way of channeling his energy. Because from childhood, Francis Ngannou drags demons. “My father was a violent man. He often hit us, my mother, my brothers and sister, and me (…) I knew through him what I did not want to be”, still confided in 2018 the giant to Infomigrants .

In his childhood memories, there is also the mine of Batié, his native stronghold, located on the high plateaus of western Cameroon. At 10, like the other children in the village, he digs in a sand quarry to pay for his schooling. An exhausting job that he evokes on social networks.

Francis Ngannou has always believed in his star, he explains in the interviews he gives. He imagines a destiny and takes the road to exile, one day in 2012, without telling his family, with only a small backpack as his luggage.

The barbed wire of Melilla

Like many migrants, he crosses Niger and Algeria before arriving in Morocco, where he tries to cross the barbed wire of the Spanish enclave of Melilla. He keeps scars on his hand, ribs, legs, feet. “I will never be able to forget them,” he says. Then comes the ordeal of crossing the Mediterranean. Francis Ngannou will have to do it several times. It was only after the seventh attempt that he managed to reach Spain. Imprisoned for two months for illegal entry into the country, he then joined France by bus.

In Paris, during a raid, he was spotted by a volunteer who introduced him to the director of the humanitarian association La Chorba, in the 12th arrondissement, Khater Yenbou. “He helped us for months to prepare the meals. He peeled the vegetables. He was shy and discreet but always very sociable and adorable. He was and still is a beautiful person”, recalls the activist, interviewed by the Parisian .

Passed through a champion factory in Paris

Luck knocks on Francis Ngannou’s door when Khater Yenbou introduces him to coach Didier Carmont. He agrees to open the doors of his club to her without asking her to pay. “Didier then gave me 50 euros, just like that, without knowing me. Even today, I still don’t know why he did it but it changed everything. With that money, I went to Go Sport right next to the parking lot that I was squatting. I bought myself a bag, a towel and the following Saturday, I was in training to do the sparring-partner, “says the champion to the Parisian. Didier Carmont then advises him to try his luck in MMA and introduces him to Fernand Lopez, founder of the MMA Factory, boxing being a “too closed” environment.

But since his departure for the United States, the two men have been estranged. But the current coach of Ngannou recognizes the merits of Lopez in the formation of the “Predator”. In this planted setting, the common story linking Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou feeds the suspense before what is already being described as “the fight of the year” in an increasingly popular discipline in France with approximately 50,000 practitioners.

In Cameroon too, Francis Ngannou made MMA popular in Batié, where he had an academy built to train young people in 2019. In the village, where the colossus goes from time to time, posters of the champion are scattered everywhere . On fight nights, the inhabitants gather in front of the screens of the refreshment bars. There is no doubt that his Cameroonian fans will be present to follow this fight of the titans, even if the African Cup of Nations already captivates the organizing country.

With AFP