Francis Ngannou recounts his harrowing journey from Cameroon’s sand mines at age 10 to the UFC, including a year-long, illegal trek through Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, and Morocco—bribing police, swallowing money, and dodging EU-backed border forces like Spain’s Guardia Civil. His April 2013 crossing, evading patrols with aluminum-wrapped boats, ended in Spanish detention for two months before reaching France, where he slept in parking lots chasing a boxing dream. After MMA training at Extreme Couture, he won his first fight via a Kimura submission and later dominated the UFC, though his rushed title loss to Stipe exposed vulnerabilities. Now, his foundation fights to dismantle the deadly route he survived, proving ambition thrives with opportunity—not desperation. [Automatically generated summary]
I think that's why I wanted to wait a little bit before I come.
I'm like, well, I'm not sure if I will handle that.
You know, sometimes I listen to the podcast, and I'm like, basically, when you're talking about different podcasts, different topics, I'm kind of like lost some time.
Like, okay, what does this mean?
What does that mean?
You know, but now I feel a little bit comfortable.
It's got to be a difficult thing to figure out how to pace yourself for a five-round fight when you've only been knocking people out quickly before that.
Also, you know, some people get here while they're being proficient, while they've been having at least at least lives for a long time, maybe wrestling, maybe doing some different sport at school or at college.
But I never get into that stuff, you know?
Growing up, I was just like finding my way to survive.
Then I end up finding myself in somewhere that I never been there.
And two years after that, I was fighting my first fight in the UFC. And I remember, basically, at first, when I went in the martial art, it was just for fun, for curiosity.
I didn't like seeing myself being a UFC fighter and people was like, oh, if you put yourself into this, you can become a UFC fighter and a UFC champion.
You can have a UFC belt wrapped around your waist.
I'm like, whatever.
I don't care about it until I have the UFC contract.
Two years after that, I'm like, okay, this might be the opportunity that I have been looking for.
So it's time to capitalize and showcase my talent and show the world.
I remember I was in Orlando and I'm like, man, this is the time.
Like, I'm going to fight to be seen in the whole world, so this is the time to take my opportunity to showcase my talent, to prove that I can do something.
It's frustrating because the way that they look at you when you speak with your accent, you know, you don't feel comfortable.
You can't, like, let yourself express yourself.
You just feel bad about yourself.
You know, just seeing some people's reactions sometimes.
And you didn't have a resident card.
You were, like, a migrant.
So together it was a tough situation to deal with, basically in the boxing business, because they're going to go see this promoter, talk about you, but who is that guy?
I left my village when I was 22. I was driving a motorcycle, doing taxi with motorcycle.
You know, like you see in Africa, people doing taxi.
You carry like three people behind you, sit on the fuel tank and just like driving them to some point.
And that's what I was doing.
So that's not like a big job.
So I couldn't have much money.
But since I was dreaming for boxing so bad, then...
I sold that to go to the city and finally boxing because I've been dreaming for boxing for over about 10 years, but there wasn't a gym like 50 miles around.
So I decided to sell my bike, my motorcycle and go to the city.
And by the time my family thought I was, people around thought I was going crazy, like, what the hell?
Like you have a job, you have a chance to have a job, to have a bike, you can feed yourself and maybe create your family, your own family and you say you're going to do this boxing.
What the hell is boxing?
Did you ever see somebody coming from here to succeed in boxing?
Then they will take some examples such as people like Wata Bele, Joseph Besala, Jean-Marie Mebe, which is people that was like a legend in combat sport in Cameroon.
But financially, they didn't succeed.
Their life wasn't a great example to lay on.
And that's why people were like, okay, those people had a chance to start sport when they were young, to be surrounded.
You're like 22 and I'm like, I'm going to do boxing.
Are you aware that the amount of success that you've achieved has got to be very inspirational for other people that are in the same sort of situation that you were in?
When they hear your story and they know the people around them are questioning their desires too, you took a chance, a lot of chances.
It didn't take me so long after I got in Europe to realize that.
Because I started to fight, to compete in France, and they were seeing me on TV and calling me or texting me like, Oh, we see somebody on the TV like you, but you have a Drake love, Lux.
That guy was exactly like you.
You know, I'm like, yeah, he might be me.
You know?
So, after a few fights, I'm like, damn, so that your boxing, that your boxing shit was serious.
You really like that thing?
I'm like, yes, guess what?
Yeah, yeah, I am.
And I'm like, Man, that means it's never late.
You know, I've been thinking of doing this and I always thought, I always think it's too late, I can't make it.
But I think right there, you just proved me wrong because I was even closer to my dream than yours.
And you still achieve yours.
So that means it's never late.
So let me try out.
I'm like, yeah, you should.
What's wrong?
I mean, if you fail, it's okay.
You have a right.
A lot of people fail over and over before succeed.
But most people don't have the confidence to take chances like that.
Most people, they hear these people saying, oh, you're going to get Parkinson's, you're going to get sick, you're not going to make money, you're not going to be able to feed your family.
Yeah, like that started, I was six years old when my parents divorced.
I went to my aunt and she has like a ton of kids and I was one among them.
It wasn't a great experience, but what I do learn there, and this is the first thing that I learned in my life, like people was coming over, I'm like, okay, who kid is this?
I'm like, Yes.
She was like, this is my sister, kids.
Your sister will marry to this guy.
She was like, yes.
I'm like, oh, this guy is so violent.
Oh, he's this, he's that.
And that's how they were talking about my dad.
So every time that they were talking about my dad, I was just ashamed of it.
I was just six years old.
Like, if I come into the room and they're talking about my dad, I'll just sneak, go back, and walk away.
Not like a professional fighter, but he was violent, fighting, beating his wife up, my mom up, beating us up.
And that's even how they get divorced.
And from that moment, I didn't know.
I mean, I was six.
I didn't know nothing about life.
I didn't know what I want to become in life.
But from that moment, I knew something.
I don't want to become like my dad.
Like, shit.
I don't want this.
So, and it ended up pretty well for me because I always have that in front of, in my mind.
And that's helped me my entire life.
And that's why even today, thinking about my dad, he might be one of the irresponsible guys out there, irresponsible dad.
But believe me, this guy impacts my life than nobody else.
And I think, even in a better way, if he was a good dad, like, have us together, educate us, you know, sometimes you tell kids not to do something, you're like, why do they always want me not to do this?
They want to try that out, to see how it feels to do it, you know?
But I get it on my own, and that was for real.
My reputation was something to save.
And growing in Cameroon, we drink a lot of beer.
A lot.
And since I already had a dream of becoming a professional athlete, a boxer, I wanted to Even though I didn't have a chance to have a gym around, I never see a gym in life.
But I want to get myself ready to get a discipline.
So if ever the opportunity gets there, I will be able to gather it.
And that's why When my friend was drinking, I would never drink, never smoke because I'm like, I'm an athlete.
Growing up doing something like that, that's got to, first of all, it had to be very difficult.
Like, digging sand.
It's also, your body must develop very strong from doing something like that.
At 10 years old, like, as you're growing, as you're maturing, doing something that's that difficult, I mean, it must have made you really fucking strong.
I didn't like my life and I always feel like I miss my childhood.
There's something missing in it because there's been so much frustration in my life.
I had to work by that age and it wasn't enough.
When school starts all the time, I'm going to go to school and most of the time I still didn't have a pen to take notes or a notebook to write on it.
Sometimes no shoes or clothes, just have to wear.
My uniform was tear all over.
I was frustrated to look around and see other kids looking good, you know.
They went on vacation to this family member, came back with all brand new stuff and I was just there looking crappy with my I had to take my old book and look for an empty page to take a note, hoping that when I have a book, I will copy the note from this year in the new book.
But at first, I always had to use the old book.
And most of the time, teachers, they don't understand why you don't have a book.
They don't understand why you don't have a pen.
Sometimes they just think that you didn't tell your parents.
You should tell your parents so they can buy it for you.
They don't understand that you cannot just afford it.
Because most of the time, it's going to be even with the money that I work, that they're going to buy my pen or my book.
But you work sometimes and they don't pay you right away.
It's maybe after...
Months, months, you know, so all the process.
And sometimes they will just kick you out from the school because of the scholarship fee you haven't paid on time.
So they kick you out.
So I was a subject of shame to other kids.
Because all the time when they kick you out in front of 50, 60 students, it's not a good thing.
And I couldn't have a friend because you know how things work.
You have to be able to...
Bring something on the table to enjoy.
But since you don't even have a pen or a book to take notes, nobody expects you to bring a lunch or to buy something in the break time to share with them.
So they don't want to share with you since they don't have any hope that you have something to share with them.
And I was always in retreat.
I always stay in retreat.
And that's how I technically grew up by myself.
I end up not even trying to have a friend.
I'm like, okay, this is my situation.
Maybe I just...
I feel okay to just retreat myself, not just to try all the time and get shame of it all the time.
I always retreat and don't have to deal with these people, with their opinion on me.
But that motivated me at some point.
Look, these kids are looking at me like I'm worth nothing.
But technically, I'm worth more than them because I'm working.
Even though what I have is less than what they have, I deserve what I have.
I work hard for it.
And they don't deserve shit.
They are just kids.
They work and their parents provide for them.
I'm not just lucky to have the chance, but I'm still trying, which means I'm not bad at the end of the day, you know?
So that pushed me to, like, from there, I wanted something to prove them wrong.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to do something that's going to prove this kid that I'm not beneath them.
It really hurts me to remember everything, like where I came from, how he was.
Every time that I go back home, I will go back to all those places that I used to work there.
I hated this thing growing up.
Oh, you can imagine.
I hated this and mine, everything.
I hated my life.
But today, it seems like a fuel for my life today.
I have to fill up from that life.
Go back there, see this.
Because most people there are still people that we grew up together.
And he allowed me to see how far I came from.
You know?
I think the moment that I enjoy the most is like those moments, you know, going back, go to the house that I grew up into, even though we fix it today, it's not the same, but the environment,
like sleeping, have all this nostalgic, At 5 o'clock, all these animal sounds from outside, the bed, birds, all those sounds which are very familiar, bring you back from 20 to 25 years ago.
The smells, everything reminds you something.
And this is always my best moment.
I can go there and live in the five-star hotel, do some crazy stuff, but I don't enjoy that as much.
I don't know how to explain it, but I always do it.
I always go back to the sand mine.
This is like a tradition.
Not just for them, because he helps me.
I like it.
I feel like, okay, you know, it's kind of like taking my revenge of life.
Like, okay, I used to be here thinking this, thinking that, dreaming of this, dreaming of that.
I think that's even why some of the reasons will keep me going back and even in the foundation.
Like once I had like a really good friend of mine.
This guy is in the village and he's doing good.
He's doing his businesses, doing good for a village guy.
Like sometime I will come there.
He will even give me like a whiskey, find a good whiskey for me.
And he said, man, You know, like, you just going in America and come back here means a lot to us.
Like, we grew up together.
That means it's possible for us to drive us through our dream.
Like, motivate us.
Like, yes, if Francis did it, I mean...
I might not do the same thing, but I can get to what I want to, you know?
And I'm like, thank you.
I really appreciate his word.
And he was like very humble, explaining me things.
And yeah.
And that's why I also like doing my foundation.
I like to tell these kids, like, listen, I'm not a fairy tale.
I'm not a story that you watch on TV or that you read in the book.
I'm a fact.
I grew up here.
Most of you knew me before I even lived here, which means it's possible.
You know, as long as you believe in something, in a dream, as long as you have a dream and believe in yourself, I think success is just a matter of time.
Honestly, the goal is to do everything because there is just too much, a lot to be done back then.
There is nothing out there.
But as for now, I have a gym for kids because when I was back there with my dream as a kid, I always expected to have someone come there and have a gym.
I was like, this would be cool.
You know, so I can train, you know.
And the first thing that I did when I went in France, and then I see how there are opportunities there.
I started to collect clothes, everything that I can have.
I started to collect them and ship it home.
And over the years, I built a gym under the foundation so kids can go there and train.
Not because I want them to become a professional athlete, but just because I want them to feel like they matter, you know, like somebody care about them.
Because most of the time, that's why kids give up on their dream.
They feel like, okay, it's not mean for us.
We can't get there.
They just let him go.
Which is wrong, because I think everybody can make it.
It's still difficult, more difficult to somebody than some, but it's still possible for everyone.
And from my experience, I mean, it might not be always true, but when you believe, when you have a dream and you believe into, there's no way that you're not going to make it.
You know, he might take time, he might come on his own time, but he will always come.
I stayed in the village for like two or three weeks.
I see everything.
And the last time that I was leaving the village, I think that was a very hard moment for me because I knew that from there I'm going.
I was scared.
I was afraid.
But it feels like I was forced to do it.
I had to do it.
I couldn't be there and see my life turn up the way that he was and not taking action.
A few years earlier, my dad passed away.
He got sick.
He stayed in the home.
We couldn't even bring him to the hospital.
And we just look at him, get sick, suffer until he passed away.
And I was like, man, if this shit happened again in my family, like, guess if my mom, after all what she, she have been doing, all the sacrifice as a single mom, if she gets sick today, We should be the ones taking care of her.
But I can't do anything.
I'm just going to sit here and see my life.
I would like to have kids in my life.
How can I take care of those kids?
They're going to go back in the same process, in the same life like me?
No, I have to take action.
So it was clear in my mind that I have to leave.
It wasn't even a choice anymore.
It was like an obligation in order to have a better life and bring a potential solution in my upcoming problems.
Normally it's like 24 hours with a car because it's like very flat so they don't have speed limit.
They can go like 150 miles per hour straight up and they have to hide from like rudders because sometimes they are like helicopter Flying up there looking, checking if there's something going on, because they know that there's a lot of traffic there.
Not only immigrants, but only guns and drugs and everything.
So they're always flying there.
So they use talky walky to communicate.
It's like an organization.
They are well organized.
But you have to be lucky so the car don't break up in the middle of the trip.
Because if the car break up in the middle of the trip, most of the time it's over.
The first time I fell on it, I'm like stuck there.
But if I stay there on the barbell to expect a rescue, somebody, a rescue, then the military will come and guess what?
Ah, they don't joke.
Right.
They will beat you up basically when you're a big guy like this because they know when you're big, for them you are the oldest one.
You're going to Senegal and bring all those bambinos to come to go to Europe because you think we don't want to go to Europe.
They beat the shit out of you.
Sometimes with a bar of iron, you know, they kill people just by beating them.
You know, there are just some people, they are not educated, they don't know differences, they don't even understand people's struggles, they don't understand nothing.
They just took them in the town and trained them and gave them a bath to beat people.
Because every time that you attempt, and it's not easy, you have to prepare to go attempt.
And every time that you attempt, if you fail, If you get lucky, you don't get beat up or all the stuff, they're going to bring you back in the South and throw you in the desert to let you go.
So it's their own way to say, go back to your country.
They leave you in the border, out of their country, which is in the desert, close to Algeria.
Algerians, they don't want you there.
Moroccan, they don't want you there.
So you have to work like the whole night to get somewhere that you can rest.
And to go back from where you were, it takes a lot of time.
You know, it's a struggle because we're going to jump into like a...
Merchandise train, and all those things, all this process is very long.
Sometimes you have to go in the water to attempt to, like, deviate from Morocco to get to this island.
But it became very, very complicated because they have radar all the time running.
And as soon as you even have a chance to touch the water, you're going to get caught right away because they have all this high tech, this infrared motion detector.
When they catch you guys, they'll put you in the police, keep you in the police station until you are there enough of you, maybe to fill one box, to make a trip in the south.
But since there was a massive attack, there was a lot of people that got caught.
So on the same day, they took us to Ushta, which is in the South, and you sleep there like one or two days, and they wait until the night time.
They go to the border in the desert and throw you guys there.
Then you figure your way up between Algerian military, who are not joking, because sometimes when they hear noises, they just shoot.
Then from there, I don't know why I promised myself that with all those experiences, I promised myself that the next time that I'm touching this water, I'm done.
I'm not coming back.
When you get into this, you get mad.
I'm like, yeah, you get into it.
It's time.
I'm doing this.
It's like you have to take your revenge.
But the winter was coming.
It was cold.
The water was so bad.
We couldn't try it anymore by that time.
But the good thing is, from there, people give me credit for being a captain.
A captain.
I'm like, wow, he's a hell of captain.
Like, right where they left us in the beach, they couldn't make it.
They saw how I put it.
So they went back, and I'm like, we have a damn captain here named Vanda.
Like three months and a half, so all the winter, we couldn't make it.
We go back to the forest to attempt to defend again.
But that life condition was so harsh, we couldn't do anything.
Like get cold all the time, no clothes, no food.
It's really hard.
You have to go to the market at night time to go find food in the trash, you know, sometimes arguing with rats in the trash, like, hey, get away of these tomatoes.
It's mine.
These rotten tomatoes are mine, not yours.
Go back in the forest, figure out how to cook that in the aluminium bucket or something.
You know the first time that we went in the water?
Like, we were led by an Ivory Coast guy.
And this guy, he was a good captain.
He knows the thing.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
And he was very good in the water.
He knows how to swim.
He knows everything.
So they saw us.
That was our first time.
And this guy had a lot of experience into this.
And he's been there for so long.
So he's kind of like mad about it.
Like, okay, it's time.
I'm done with this.
I have to do it.
Whatever there is.
As time goes by, you're kind of open to take more risk.
At first, I'm like, I don't know about this.
It's risky.
It's dangerous.
And then after time, over and over, I'm like, whatever it takes, I'm doing it.
He was at that point.
We weren't there yet.
He was there already.
And then he brought us to...
This is supposed to be a deviation, but they saw us before, the military saw us before we get in the water.
And he was in the dark.
We were on the hill.
There was a big hill like this.
We have to go all the way down to touch the water.
But in the middle of the hill, there was a road and the military patrol was there.
We put the air on our boat, right, in the upstairs, in the dark, and get the paddle to some people to carry, so we can carry the boat, because we have to, like, really protect him.
Even a stone or something can just burst.
We have to really be very careful.
And then by the road, there was a patrol guy with a torch, because they sent an alert that something is going on in your area.
And the guy just saw us, and we thought it was over.
This captain, he's just like, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!
I'm like, going where?
We are not seeing nothing.
But you hold the boat, he's going with the boat, this is your life.
You're not letting him go with your life, so we just followed.
And we were in the dark and we just fell in the water like the stone and everything.
We had a chance.
Our boat didn't hit on something, so it was still good.
But they caught the two people behind because there were six of us.
They caught the two people behind with the paddle.
So we fell in the water.
No pattern.
And the military, they were just there.
And I'm like, with their touch, you know, in the dark, when you're in the dark, there might just be four of them, but they use the touch and sweep it like this.
It blinds your eyes.
You don't know where you're going.
But we get calm.
You just hold.
The boat.
This is my life.
I'm not letting this go.
I'm dying with it.
We found ourselves in the middle of the water and they were there like, Haji!
Haji!
Come here!
In Moroccan.
I'm like, no, we are not coming.
We're trying to get there, and when we get in the boat, we find out that there are two of us missing, basically those with the paddle.
So I was in the forest then for the whole winter because I couldn't even go back to the city to find a job.
I was done with that.
I'm like, man, I'm done with that.
I could have just stayed in Cameroon and keep working the same thing.
I'm not coming to a foreign country doing the same shit.
It's over.
I'm here for something.
I stick on what I'm here for.
I don't want to get distracted.
I stay in the forest, so every day before I go to sleep, I remember why I'm here.
Every day that I wake up, I see Melia out there, and it reminds me why I'm here.
I don't want to go back in the city in Rabat or Casablanca or this anymore.
I'm done with that.
I'm staying here.
But after the winter started to get over, I had a friend who called me and I was like, Francis, I have this guy, they have a boat, the water is starting to get better now, not too much waves and this.
They have a boat, I would like you to come to our city so we can take them together.
I trust you and myself, you should come.
I called in my country and asked for my mom and my brother, like, I need money.
I'm like, we don't have money.
I'm like, man, figure out.
I have some picks, some stuff before I leave.
I'm like, sell everything.
I need money.
I need clothes and shoes and I need to pay a box, buy a box ticket to go to this city.
They figured out.
I think they found like 200 bucks.
They sent it to me.
I went to the bus station.
I bought a bus ticket.
It was two of us, me and one of my cousin's friends.
My cousin has married by the gate.
And we couldn't even marry because there were cops all around.
So I didn't want to find myself in Ujda, in the desert anymore.
By the winter, if you get there, it's not good at all.
It's like, what, maybe 30 degrees in Ujda, and you don't have clothes.
And in this condition, You don't come out there the same.
He takes a lot out of you.
So, we get back in the forest.
We couldn't make it.
And the next day, like at a...
not the next day, maybe two days after, because all the time the police come in the forest to chase us.
They know where we are in the forest.
The forest is very big, very pretty close to the city, but they come and they're trying to surround us because there's many of them.
And we always have somebody looking up, like looking for the police.
By 4 o'clock, 4 a.m.
sometime, you will just sleep in, you will just hear like, Boomla!
It's not like police, but the action that the police, we call the action boomlah.
So they come to catch us.
We call that action.
It's like a slang.
And when you hear that boomlah, you have to run.
We have this plastic that we, because in the forest, we put stones together, build like a little shatter, and then find a plastic and put on top of it, not to get wet when we are sleeping.
So we build it like two feet high, put plastic on top, you know, and then get inside and sleep.
We beg for blankets.
We have some people donate to us, even some association who will come sometime give us medication.
Sometime we will get blankets.
So, your main thing is your plastic and your blanket.
But sometimes, when the police come, they put the fire on your blanket and your plastic.
So whenever now, when they say, You have to save your blanket and your plastic because that's your survival toils.
Without them, you're nothing.
You're going to have a nightmare every night.
So when they say, The first thing you do, you wrap your blanket, you wrap your plastic, you climb on top of the tree sometimes to hide it, but sometimes they climb on top of it.
They see that and they climb on top to take it and burn it.
So you wrap it sometimes, you just run with it.
You don't know how this run is going to end.
Maybe you're going to get caught because they always surround you.
Then we're gonna like sometime when you find found out you find out that you get surrounded you just go to hide somewhere and you're gonna stay like immobile for hours because they have like uh how they call miniculars Benarculus?
Benarculus.
To look from the other side and communicate over the turkey walking, like seeing if there is emotion somewhere, some people.
So we have to get in the hardest part in the forest, that they can get there.
Even if they are suspecting that we might be there, just this stake, It doesn't allow them to go there because they get hurt.
So you have to go to this pain to support all this pain.
Like, okay, he's hurting, but this is my only way to survive because they can come there to find you.
Even though, because they are not sure 100% that you're there to take all that risk.
So you have to stay quiet for like hours.
Then, under the rain sometimes, whatever is the issue, you have to stay there.
And sometimes, if you're really surrounded, if you see them before they surround you guys, you just start to run over the mountains and mountains for hours before then.
Spend a few hours in the run before coming back in the evening, knowing that they might be back because they have to go back.
They get tired too.
They have to eat.
They have to do all these things.
You can take that, but they cannot take that as much as you guys.
So that's how we do that.
So, after missing my boss to go to Tanger, two days after I came back and I have some phone.
You know, we have some phone.
It was just for call.
And I turn on my phone because we always turn off to save batteries.
He has to stay like two weeks.
You don't want to go down there in the...
Internet shop, why maybe charging your phone, get caught by the police, which is very stupid, you know.
And so I turned my phone on.
I saw like a dwarf missing call.
I'm like, something's going on.
I called some people and I'm like, man, Ito Boza!
Which means the guy that was waiting for me, he made it in Spain.
Some people were texting me like, okay, we have come here.
We're going to organize.
We're going to buy a boat.
I'm like, Like, bro, I don't have time to wait for who's going to buy a boat sometime soon.
I'm going for those.
And I have these people that, this guy, that he'd been texting me, being like, we want you to go with us, this, that, like, literally begging me to be the captain.
Because I was a famous captain by the time.
And I'm like, man, you ready?
I'm like, yes.
I said, I can't sleep here in the forest.
I can't take it.
I just go to the bus station, book a plane ticket.
I'm like, I get caught, I get caught.
Whatever happens, happens.
I'm not going back.
I didn't get caught.
I got back in Rabat.
The guy was in Rabat.
They was working.
And here I'm like, this was Tuesday.
Monday night.
I get there Tuesday morning.
Here I'm like, hey, we are working to these people.
They're going to pay us on Saturday.
I'm like, guess what?
I can stay until Saturday.
I can't.
We are going on Thursday.
I'm like, okay, go there and see how things work.
We will go, see how things work, and the other people will come.
Because we collect our money together to buy this boat.
And for now, it's still like the end of the winter.
So the water is not that calm.
You have to find a window.
And for that, you have to check the weather, the meteor all the time, every day, every single day.
So, we move.
On Thursday, we travel to Tangier.
We get, as soon as I touch ground in Tangier, I get fever.
I get sick.
I couldn't tell them that I'm sick.
They were counting on me to bring them in Europe.
So I can't show any sign of weakness to let them know that something is wrong.
I didn't have any money left.
I couldn't even buy food.
But, you know, I was very known in Tanji and very trusted.
So sometimes I'm like, hey man, just give me food.
Whenever I get money, I'll pay you.
And some few people, they trust me.
They know me.
And sometimes they give me.
But I always give some little service to people to get money.
Like first, if somebody wants to know how is the meteor, how is the weather, if the weather is good or not, even though I looked already, I'm like, Oh man, you have to pay for the internet for me to look at that.
Otherwise, you won't know.
And because I know exactly how it works, so I can pull up that thing and show him like, okay, you see this?
The wind is...
Ten miles per hour, so it's kind of like high.
It has to be like maximum eight miles per hour.
Like three miles per hour is good, you know.
And the wind is north to south while we are going from south to north.
So the wind is opposite wide and it's very strong.
So we're going to be hit by them.
They're going to slow us down.
We can't make it.
So I kind of like explain all that process to them and they like it.
So when somebody needs to know exactly what's going on when they are preparing, they're going to ask me.
I'm like, you know, you have to pay for my internet.
Sometimes I'm like, hey man, I can't look that thing.
I'm like, okay, we're paying for internet.
I'm like, hey man, I'm so hungry so I can't even see.
So I changed, and I was like fainting on them with powder, like, I'm going to smash you, like, do this, do that, and we put everything together.
Go in the water.
The water keep turning because in between stones, even though it was a beach, but the water there was very weird, like turning around, you know, and keep throwing us, keep throwing us.
I'm like, no, man, we are going this way.
Put in the third time.
We made it.
We start to move.
We get out of that place and keep going and we paddle.
From what I saw on the weather, the meteo, The rain is supposed to fall.
And after a few moments, I didn't realize how long was that.
And we saw this, we saw an helicopter flying on top of us.
And he was kind of like turning around.
I'm like, man, this helicopter, she just passed away.
Like, Staying here will alert people from both sides that something is happening under here.
They are looking for something.
So now this is the decision to take.
Either we call the Red Cross and use the helicopter to tell them exactly where we are or either the Moroccan who saw that And figure out there's something going on and come here.
Get here first.
So I'm like telling my guy, call the Red Cross.
Because the first thing when you call, where are you?
What are you seeing?
Give us something that we're going to...
We were just like, we are underneath the helicopter.
You see the helicopter?
Because we are sure that everywhere that you might be, you will see that helicopter.
I'm like, we are right underneath it.
And they was like, do you have a girl, a woman in the boat?
By the time my English was very bad.
I was speaking like a pigeon.
And I'm like, do you have a woman?
I'm like, what the hell do they have to do if we have a woman?
We make sure everything that we get as a paper, passport, we let it in the water.
Because if you have something on you that says you're from Senegal, even though you're not from Senegal, you're getting deported from Senegal right away.
So you make sure you don't have any paper on you.
I was there, man, thinking, Then suddenly I realized he was April 3rd and I left Cameroon April 3rd, one year ago.
In Morocco, we are all from Senegal, even Guinea, Bissau, like West Africa, because a lot of West Africa country has a good relationship with Morocco, which is visa-free.
For some people, if they suspect that you're from some country who has an extradition, then they'll deport you.
They might bring somebody from your embassy to come and see, investigate to see if you're really from that country that you're saying If he recognizes you and if he recognizes, if he says yes, he's from my country, they will deport you.
Some association will come and text you and they offer you to stay there for a few days or for longer, for two weeks or for longer if you want, but you have to decide whether it's two weeks or if it's three months.
You have to choose right away.
But I wasn't going to do anything in Spain.
I just wanted to go.
So we stayed there after like two weeks.
Less than two weeks.
So I called in Cameroon again one more time.
Guess what?
I made it.
I need some money, but this is the last time.
I figured out something.
I need clothes to wear.
I need a cell phone.
And they sent me some money, like 300 bucks.
Yeah, 300 to 400. I buy myself some clothes, some cell phones and beginning of the trip.
And I wasn't going to France yet because I wanted to go to the UK, to England.
Because during my journey, my goal was always to get somewhere with the opportunity of boxing.
And England was like a big nation of boxing out of any country in Europe.
But to make it in England, it was a very...
I mean, you have to go through all this process because England is kind of...
they're kind of like taking themselves out of Europe.
So there is not a free circulation as in Europe.
From Spain to go to France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, it's easy.
There is no police control or anything.
But from there, anywhere else to go to England, oh...
Growing up, my dream was always to be in the U.S. Basically, I was so big, and all around, they were calling me American.
And I was like, yeah, I am.
You know, my signature, sometimes when I sign, people don't understand why.
It's SF. And I was like 10 years old, figured out my signature, and since there was a city in America, what I know is San Francisco, and people sometimes, as my name is Francis, would call me San Francisco.
I want to like change my name to put my name San Francisco.
Like that's even why I signed SF and it end up to be my official signature.
Yes, coaching is not going to be very complicated.
So I was going to Germany.
But...
We were a group of people, most of the people in the group was just like France.
I'm like, okay, let's go to France first.
Then I went in France just by curiosity to see, but I never really want to go to France.
And I ended up in France and things started to put themselves together and I'm like, By the end of the day, it's not that bad.
I just wanted a place with opportunity, It plays with opportunity.
France seems to have that opportunity and he will help me to get in the US, in the main door instead of the service door as usual.
Because I went in France, I get in France like June 9th, 2013. We went, I was with some guy, I saw, I was with some guy, he has a friend who was in the, some community there, some Mali, from Malian community, and you're like, okay, I'm going there.
I don't know where I'm going, so I just follow them.
They jump on the, you know, this thing at the train station, how do you call it?
You know, it was like two buildings, and somebody was, they were like, putting their clothes, drying their clothes on the window, and somebody was standing from this window, talking to somebody there, in Bambara, like, Abrigidi!
Abrigidi!
I'm like, my mind was blown out, like, man, so I almost died for you, this?
This is friends that they are talking about?
That was my first image of France.
Man, I'm like, I'm getting out of here.
I don't want to stay here because this kind of thing kind of like drown your energy.
You know, I don't want to stay around this place.
So I found the parking lot.
And the next day, I mean, a guy showed us a parking lot.
We found a Cameroonian guy who came there to eat.
And he said, I'm sleeping in some parking lot.
If you guys want, I'll show you where it is.
I'm like, hey, I really want that.
Like, I'm not staying here.
Because people was recommending, they recommend us to like call the French, that number is 115. So they have a place you can call to book for a night sleeping.
But it's like just a place to sleep.
There is like Hundreds of birds in the big house and you guys just go there.
All homeless people.
And I was homeless, but I had a very proud, like, no, like, I won't give up.
Like, you know, most of homeless people, they just give up and don't treat themselves, like, just treat themselves very bad.
I'm like, no.
Seeing this, all the time that I get around that, I feel like it's going to drive my energy, take out my energy.
I was so pumped out, expecting a world to come to me.
Exciting about everything.
That kind of environment wasn't meaningful for my dream.
And after two weeks, he started to tell me, like, man, you have a good boxing.
You have a good...
Because he was a big guy, too.
And we sparred.
I'm like, you have a good boxing.
But, you know, with your situation, I think the thing we're going to help you the most will be MMA. You know, boxing business is kind of very complicated.
But, yes, all the time he knows when to put a word.
Like, I'm telling you, you should just try.
Give it a try, that's it.
I'm like, man, I want to do this straight boxing.
You know, boxing.
Like Mike Tyson.
You know, Mike Tyson, right?
Yeah, sure.
Exactly.
That's what I want to do.
And we keep training.
And he was very nice.
He wanted to help me to fit in.
So after training, most of the time, he was like, hey, guys.
Let's go to the bar.
Let's take a drink.
And he knows that most of the time in Paris, when a guy calls out for a drink, even though somebody calls out, make sure you have your money because everybody's going to pay.
And he will say, I get you all the time.
Sometimes he'll call out for dinner.
I'm like, oh, I get you.
Just to help me to be around people because he knows everything.
He knows that I'm sleeping in the parking lot.
And he was a big guy.
He gave me like clothes.
Hey, he gave me my first perfume.
Ralph Lauren.
I was homeless.
I have my backpack, but I have my pesume every time after training.
No, like, after that, like, after one or almost two months, that gym supposed to close for one month during the holiday, during the vacation.
And that's when, because I wasn't doing MMA there, like, he offered me to try, like, whatever.
But since at the daytime I didn't have time, I made this association at the street that they was, like, helping us, giving us, like, food.
Every Monday they come by and trying to give us whatever, like, These little things that you might need, like a mouthpiece or a mouthbrush.
I remember I had a sleeping bag, you know, the military sleeping bag.
Yes, they offered that.
They gave me that because the first time they were like, what can we do for you?
I'm like, it's pretty cold down there because it was by my parking lot.
It was underground parking lot.
I'm like, it's freezing!
So if you guys have some blankets, that might be very helpful.
They said, okay, next week we're going to see what we can do.
We're going to be here by this time.
By the same time, I'm like, okay.
So I came there the same.
So I kind of like have a routine of seeing them every week.
And...
Telling them how I'm bored.
I want to do something.
I'm like, we can't give you.
We don't have job for you.
But if we want to come to our place to help, cook, cut veggies, or do whatever you can do because we make food about 700 meals every day to go provide a gift to the homeless in north of Paris.
So if you can help for the daytime, if you have a time, every free hand is welcome.
Because as an association, we don't have enough money to pay people.
So we kind of like use most volunteers.
So if you want to volunteer, I'm like, Yeah, that's cool.
Then they set up a meeting with the manager.
We met.
We go through some stuff.
And I'm like, okay, you can come.
There's no rules.
Every time, every day that you have time and you want to stop by for two hours, one hour, help us to load stuff in the truck or to unload or to cut veggies, you know, or to...
Whatever you can help for, for how long you have, you're welcome.
So I started to go there.
I started to go there by the time.
So since the gym, the MMA factory was next to that association.
And...
But I never go to the MMA factory.
They were doing CrossFit in the first floor.
So what I see from that gym, it was kind of like CrossFit.
I didn't even know if they were doing like...
Stuff like boxing or MMA. And by the time it was an MMA factory, it was CrossFight, the name.
So which is close to CrossFit.
So I just thought it was a CrossFit gym.
But since my gym wanted to close, I'm like third.
Once I was with the manager of this association and I told him, like...
I think I'm going to see if this gym next door has a boxing, if they are doing boxing there.
So I'll keep training during this one month that my original gym is going to be closed.
He says, We have a good relationship.
We are good neighbors.
So I think he will be good if I play it for you.
I'm like, good idea.
That would be a very good thing.
And he went there.
He talked to this guy in the front desk.
He was Frank.
And the guy just came.
He was a nice guy.
He was a part owner of the gym at the time.
He was very nice.
He just came in.
I'm like, look at me.
I'm like, whoa!
Good baby.
We can do.
We would like to have this.
You know, like, Fernand would be happy to see him.
I just want to do it for fun and that's it you know but and so by the time I was already like having a good relation with Didier Kamu but as he saw that I started to do MMA and that's exactly what what he wanted like He get at the point that he come to pay for a membership at this gym just to keep me
going.
And he knows that I want to be where he's at.
So sometimes he's going to call me very excited.
Hey, what's up, man?
How are you doing?
What are you doing today?
You're going to be at training today?
You're doing the MMA class today at the MMA factory?
I'm like, I don't know.
And then here I'm like, yes, I'm going to be there.
I remember when you hit him, I don't even know how I responded because you hit him so hard and he went flying back and stiffened up and I remember thinking, holy shit!
That was about as hard as I've ever seen anybody get hit from a punch in my life.
But the crazy thing is not just that you did it to him, but that you did it to, not that you landed that punch, but you landed it on one of the most decorated strikers ever in the sport.
Right there.
Boom.
I mean, he's one of the most decorated strikers ever.
I mean, K1 Grand Prix champion, Dream champion, Strikeforce champion.
Because I remember I was in my hotel room like, okay.
If I win this fight, where am I going?
From Boston right now, where am I flying to?
In Vegas?
How?
There was a lot of empty spots in this and I had to go back in France like three weeks before the fight because I came here a few months ago and I didn't really Give a chance to work with somebody.
I was working with Dewey Cooper, which is my striking coach, but not an MMA coach.
So I was holding back to trust people.
I don't know if it was due to my experience or what, but it was really hard.
So when comes the moment when Mick Maynard called me after the Alistair fight and offered me a fight, Okay, what are you doing?
January 20th.
That's the title fight.
I want a title fight.
But this is like, what, six weeks ahead?
And I don't even have a camp.
My camp is friends.
I was I'm still staying in my camp, like in my mind, still holding on in my camp in France.
And, but there was a lot of things that I didn't know that I kind of, like, Figure out during the process, during the fight, how it plays out, how it works, you know.
Because I remember when Tim Sylvia was a heavyweight champ, there was a couple times where he didn't make weight, or at least one time, that he didn't make weight the first time, and he had to go back and cut weight.
There's there's so many videos the guys hitting you in the stomach That's gotta be very disappointing for him *laughter* Just have a dude stand there and take your best shot right in the stomach.
Now, you have this amazing opportunity right now to fight for the title again, but for the longest time it seemed like that wasn't going to happen.
I mean, you had to wait so long to get another shot at the title.
Now I have a team that we have built a relationship and they are always around.
I have to fight in six weeks.
We have been working on this for so long.
Even before my previous fight, we have been working on this fight.
And I have people around just ready to do everything that has to be done for the fight.
Like Eric, he just let his family, not to mention that he came back home not long ago after like three weeks, two or three weeks in Abu Dhabi, leaving his wife and his three kids.
But as soon as I'm like, okay, we are going to Austin, where I'm like, okay, we don't have to take a day off.
We have to be together to keep training.
And this is the thing that for the first fight, I was doing the media tour for two days, no training and that stuff.
Because I was just by myself.
The team wasn't built.
You know, so we just came, Eric just came and made all this travel just in order of helping me stay in train while I'm here.
But there's some part of that journey that I cannot recommend, though.
I think I was too crazy to do some dumb shit, but when I go back in Cameroon, some people would ask me, how do you make it in France?
I'm like, hey man, figure it on your own.
I'm not going to tell you.
Not because I don't want you to make it, but because I don't want you to go through what I've been through and I know exactly what it is like.
And I was very lucky to get out there alive.
In the past six months, I know three people from my village who have died in Morocco.
in the past three months trying to escape yeah two of them died in the water and one just gets sick and died recently it's like my friend little brother and that's so sad and I can like keep I can't be thinking that I have something to do with it.
Most of them just want to follow my path.
I'm like, that's not a good way to follow.
I don't recommend that to nobody to go to that road.
It's a hell.
It's a matter of luck.
We all have luck, but sometimes he plays differently in a different ground.
As soon as I get back out there, I tell my family, hey, please, guess what?
Just stay back there.
I don't want somebody to give me heart attack.
So if I go out there and I will hustle for us, if things work pretty well, I'm going to go back there, build maybe a company, get you guys a job.
You're going to build something good for the family.
So you're going to be able to even apply for a visa.
Just go visit those countries, Europe or US. Just don't take the path you took.
You don't even need to go there and stay there.
It's a nightmare.
You're going to have a cultural barrier.
You're going to have all these things.
You have to struggle.
You don't need that anymore.
Just, please, stay home.
You know, like, I always, like, remind them, like, please, hold on.
If things change for me, it's going to change for us, for all of us.