Francis Ngannou

Ngannou was born and raised in the village of Batié, Cameroon. Ngannou lived in poverty and had little education. Height: 6' 4" (1.93 m). Weight: 145 kg. At 12 years old, Ngannou started working in a sand quarry because of a lack of funds. As a youngster, he was approached by gangs in his village to join them. However, Ngannou refused and instead decided to use his father's reputation as a street fighter as motivation to do something positive and pursue boxing.

At the age of 22, Ngannou began training in boxing, despite reluctance from his family. After training for a year, Ngannou stopped training due to illness. He did various odd jobs, until at the age of 26, he emigrated to Paris, France to pursue professional boxing. After Ngannou reached Paris, he had nothing. After living on the streets of Paris, he began training for free in August 2013 under Fernand Lopez Owonyebe at the MMA Factory. 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. Ngannou started his MMA career mostly fighting in the French promotion 100% Fight, as well as other regional promotions in Europe, until 2015 when he made his professional debut under the UFC.