Francis Ngannou shares story of eating from garbage cans and spending time in Spanish jail
Ahead of UFC 260, heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou shared the story about eating from garbage cans and spending time at a Spanish jail.
Ngannou takes on UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic next Saturday night in what should be an incredible rematch between the two best heavyweights in the sport today. Ngannou has won his last four fights in a row by a first-round knockout, while Miocic is coming off of back-to-back wins over Daniel Cormier to capture their trilogy 2-1.
Ahead of UFC 260, Ngannou spoke with Bleacher Report’s Tom Taylor and spoke about the journey to get here. Most people know some basics about Ngannou’s story about moving from his native Cameroon to France and falling in love with MMA. But in the interview with Taylor, Ngannou filled in some of the cracks in the story. Namely, the original journey he took from Cameroon to Morocco, when he first realized that he wanted to become a boxer.
“My journey from Cameroon to Morocco was about one year. One year in illegal situations, crossing borders, living in the bush, finding food in the trash, living this terrible life,” Ngannou said.
After getting to Morocco, Ngannou’s next goal was to get to Europe. To do so, he went through Spain illegally, and he was captured and detained in jail for the next two months.
“It was more stressful than scary. When we got to Spain, for the first while, we kind of relaxed, even though we were in jail. We knew we were going to go to jail when we got there. We would be free after, but we were going to go to jail (first),” Ngannou said. “There was a lot of pressure in our minds. It was like a mental prison, not a physical prison. It was very hard.”
The culmination of the lifelong journey for “The Predator” comes this Saturday at UFC 260 when he looks to defeat his rival Miocic in the rematch and finally become a world champ.
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