Francis Ngannou

Francis Ngannou is a Cameroonian and French heavyweight fighter who competes in mixed martial arts and professional boxing. Born on 5 September 1986 and raised in the village of Batie in Cameroon, he worked in a sand quarry as a child, took up boxing in his early twenties, and travelled to Paris, where he lived homeless before a boxing coach brought him to an MMA gym that let him train for free. He began fighting professionally in November 2013, mostly in France, and joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship in December 2015. He won the UFC heavyweight title by knocking out Stipe Miocic in March 2021 and defended it once, against Ciryl Gane in January 2022, before leaving the promotion after a contract dispute. He later signed with the Professional Fighters League, where he became its first Super Fights heavyweight champion in October 2024, and he also fought professional boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He is known above all for his punching power, and in 2017 he set a recorded world mark for the hardest punch.