As an homage to Francis and all he’s worked for in light of recent news I wanted to remind everyone how great of a man Francis is. For those who don’t know his story Ngannou was born and raised in the village of Batié, Cameroon. He lived in severe poverty with little to no education, his parents had divorced when he was 6 and he was sent to live with his aunt. At the age of 10 he began working in the Sand Quarry’s to help support his family make ends meet. In his youth he was approached by multiple gangs to join them but he followed a different path, that of which being using his fathers negative reputation as a street fighter to motivate himself and pursue boxing. At 22 he began his training in boxing and did a variety of jobs to assist his family with their money struggles. By age 26 Francis was determined to go to Paris to pursue a professional boxing career and over a 1 year period where he had to travel over 3000 miles he was stopped 7 TIMES trying to cross the Spain/Morocco border and still didn’t falter. After each attempt he was dropped in the Sahara Desert where the conditions are awful and even when he made it into Spain he was imprisoned for 2 months until finally arriving in France. He was homeless, broke and had no family or friends and still preserved until he found a gym that he lived in while making his transition to mma. He then went on to dominate the HW division in the UFC and even when the company rejected him he found a new venture in boxing where he took one of the best boxers on the planet to an arguable decision. The guy is so genuine and humble it’s impossible not to like him. He truly went from nothing to something to everything, if anyone deserves it it’s Francis. It hurts seeing such a revered person at such a low place when Francis has truly overcome ever trial and tribulation the world has thrown at him, I pray and hope he can push through this one as well. “That’s the thing about dreaming, if you believe in yourself you can become your own hero, or a hero to somebody else.”