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Francis Ngannou opens up on extreme poverty he faced in childhood and admits he ate rotten food to survive

Home> MMA

Updated 11:49 8 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 11:41 8 Aug 2024 GMT+1

Francis Ngannou opens up on extreme poverty he faced in childhood and admits he ate rotten food to survive

Francis Ngannou detailed the struggles he went through during his childhood.

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar

Francis Ngannou says he ate 'rotten' food as he opened up about the extreme poverty he faced in his upbringing.

It was a long, hard journey for Ngannou to get to the UFC. He had an arduous task to trek to the Mediterranean Sea, where he could forge a career.

He worked in a sand mine in Cameroon alongside his siblings from the age of nine, before leaving Africa for Europe.

The former UFC champion travelled from Cameroon to Spain via North Africa as he detailed his struggles in Morocco, where he stayed for 'one year' - calling it the 'toughest' part of his journey to becoming a combat superstar.

Speaking to Steven Bartlett (@Steven on Instagram and TikTok) on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Ngannou revealed the great lengths he had to go through to get to Spain.

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The 37-year-old explained how he lived in harsh conditions, residing in deserts and forests to reach his end goal.

And he was fuelled by food from the market trash, including rotten tomatoes and chicken legs.

"What you eat is everything that you find," he said.

"Sometimes there are people that can make a trap and try to get some animals. But for the most part we will wait for night-time to go to the market because the undercover police are always around."

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Ngannou added: "We will wait for night-time to go to the market for the market trash and then find rotten stuff like that they throw away whether it's tomatoes, potatoes or chicken legs because they didn't eat chicken legs."

Francis Ngannou during his childhood in Cameroon. Image: Francis Ngannou/Instagram
Francis Ngannou during his childhood in Cameroon. Image: Francis Ngannou/Instagram

Ngannou eventually made it to Europe, where he trained MMA in France before joining the UFC.

He won the UFC heavyweight title to cap off his remarkable journey before having not one but two lucrative boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

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'The Predator' will return to the cage in his next appearance as he's set to make his Professional Fighters League debut against Renan Ferreira.

Featured Image Credit: The Diary of a CEO/Francis Ngannou

Topics: Francis Ngannou, UFC

Nasir Jabbar
Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Darren Till. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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@NasJabbar

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