The story of Francis Ngannou is among the most compelling in all of combat sports. Born in Batié, Cameroon, he worked in sand mines as a child, lived in extreme poverty, left his home country as a young man, and survived homelessness in Europe before finding MMA and building himself into one of the most dangerous heavyweights the sport has ever seen.
Known as The Predator, Ngannou ended seven of his fourteen UFC fights by knockout before the two-minute mark in the first round and is considered the lineal heavyweight champion in mixed martial arts. That lineage did not end when he left the UFC, and it did not end when boxing handed him two losses. It was still intact Saturday night at the Intuit Dome.