Francis Ngannou is a Cameroonian-French MMA fighter; one of the hardest-hitting fighters in the sport’s history and the first African heavyweight world champion in history.
Last month, the MMA fighter engaged Tyson Furry in a boxing bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which was marketed as ‘The Battle of The Baddest’. Fury came into the match with an unbeaten professional record, while ex-UFC champion Ngannou was making his boxing debut.
After a close fight, the Briton boxer was named the winner of the bout via a split decision despite Ngannou knocking him down in Round 3 to the shock of many in attendance and the sports world.
Ngannou said he was happy with how he performed in a post-match interview. “This was my first boxing match. It was a great experience,” he said. He noted that he was looking forward to a rematch. He stated, “We can run it back again, and I’m sure I will get better.”
According to the Mirror, Fury said ahead of the bout that Ngannou would earn $10m for the fight while The Sun reported that Fury would take home $50 million. For the Cameroonian, the numbers are significant. TalksSports reported that the former UFC champion had made just around $600,000 for his title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. The money he reportedly got from the Fury bout dwarfs the UFC amount by a significant margin. The figure is also five times more than his entire UFC career earnings. His total UFC career earnings are reported to be around 3.5 million dollars.
Branching into boxing, particularly this bout, was one of Ngannou’s retirement plans. This is in addition to envisaging an African version of the UFC. In a 2017 interview, he told RMC Sport that he wants the continent to develop a promotion like the UFC, since Africa has all the potential.
According to him, Africa has the right fighters, adding that there are more than 550 male fighters in different divisions in the UFC. Of these 550 fighters, there are less than 50 Africans, but three are champions, he noted.
“That’s less than 5% of African fighters, but 43% of champions. In terms of percentages, we dominate the UFC. If the UFC comes to Africa, it’s beautiful,” he told RMC Sports.
Today, Ngannou is putting his vision into reality through his partnership with the Professional Fighters League (PFL), making him a minority owner. PFL is regarded as one of the fastest-growing global sports leagues and the second MMA company worldwide on all metrics.
The partnership will see the professional fighter act as chairman and a minority equity owner in PFL Africa. Additionally, he will anchor the PFL’s PPV Super Fight Division and also serve on PFL’s Global Athlete Advisory Board, PFL announced in a statement in May.
“I am very excited for this game-changing partnership with the Professional Fighters League to continue my MMA fighting career in the PFL’s PPV Super Fight Division,” Ngannou said in the statement. “I believe in the PFL’s ‘fighter first’ culture and global vision including developing the sport in Africa.”
As part of the partnership deal, Ngannou has been recruited to fight exclusively in MMA for the PFL’s new PPV Super Fight Division and is scheduled to make his PFL PPV Super Fight debut in mid-2024 against a major global MMA starfighter to be chosen in the future.
Moreover, the division has developed a model to enhance true economic partnerships with the sport’s top stars to compete in global mega-events, offering 50% of the revenue from the PPV fights.
Meanwhile, the PFL CEO, Peter Murray, has pledged to work with Ngannou to bring his vision to life and also impact communities in Africa.
“Beyond working with Francis to advance the sport of MMA and scale PFL globally, I’m personally looking forward to supporting Francis in his commitment to fight for communities in Africa and around the world, inspired by his vision for the Francis Ngannou Foundation,” he said.
