{"id":268039,"date":"2018-01-17T12:17:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T20:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=268039"},"modified":"2018-01-17T12:17:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T20:17:55","slug":"francis-ngannou-dedicates-heavyweight-title-journey-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-dedicates-heavyweight-title-journey-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou Dedicates His Heavyweight Title Journey to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the sand mines and homelessness in France, Francis Ngannou has overcome everything and entered a world of crisp suits and headlining UFC 220. Ngannou&#8217;s journey has been nothing short of incredible, but it&#8217;s not just about him, it&#8217;s about where he came from. His rise to success leads hopeful footsteps that people back home can follow. Whether that dream be fighting for a UFC championship, or simply finishing school, Ngannou wants to show generations of people that anything is possible.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis is going to close the chapter of my childhood and teenage years. All that time I have been frustrated with my whole life, with a feeling that I was always the last one who never had a chance. So I want to close that. I want to leave that behind me.\u00a0This journey now is not only mine, it\u2019s for all Cameroonians and for the whole of Africa and all of France, too.\u00a0In Africa, when I started the journey, I was by myself. No one believed me at that time, and today all of them believe in me and they almost rely on me. It\u2019s very important, because I can bring hope to someone or help someone to be ambitious and tell them that everything is possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">He&#8217;s coming. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francis_ngannou?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Francis_Ngannou<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC220?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC220<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V1F5LdT61N\">pic.twitter.com\/V1F5LdT61N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UFC (@ufc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ufc\/status\/953389171153936384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSee where I\u2019m from and see where I am today, this inspires a lot of people and gets a lot of people excited, so that they want to do something by themselves. In Africa, in many parts of the continent, people do not allow themselves to dream, because what they dream of; it\u2019s unreal, but I\u2019m just trying to show that everything is possible. That dream, you can allow yourself. You have a right. It doesn\u2019t matter what was the beginning or how you began. What\u2019s more important is where you arrive. As long as you prepare for your arrival and you have the right mind set, you can do it. That gives me motivation because I am not fighting just for me. I am fighting for all the people watching; trusting me, relying on me. They need to see me succeed to believe they can succeed. That gives me strength.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodyelbow.com\/2018\/1\/17\/16883068\/ufc-220-francis-ngannou-wants-to-show-africa-you-have-right-to-dream-stipe-miocic-mma-interview-news\">Francis Ngannou speaking to Bloody Elbow<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Francis Ngannou would love to win the UFC heavyweight title and take it back to Africa. It would be a storybook ending to a story that has movie rights written all over it. However, even if the contender falls short and can not dethrone Stipe Miocic, he <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-will-earn-significant-payday-ufc-220\/\">still gets $500K just to show up<\/a>. It may not be a gold belt, it may not fulfill the prophecy that the UFC has predicted for Ngannou, but it&#8217;s still a helluva victory for the man who has walked through hell and back for his shot.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\">BJPenn.com<\/a> on 1\/17\/2018.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the sand mines and homelessness in France, Francis Ngannou has overcome everything and entered a world of crisp suits and headlining UFC 220. Ngannou&#8217;s journey has been nothing short of incredible, but it&#8217;s not just about him, it&#8217;s about where he came from. His rise to success leads hopeful footsteps that people back home [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54442,"featured_media":220702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10646,10253],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Francis Ngannou Dedicates His Heavyweight Title Journey to Africa | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/francis-ngannou-dedicates-heavyweight-title-journey-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Francis Ngannou Dedicates His Heavyweight Title Journey to Africa | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the sand mines and homelessness in France, Francis Ngannou has overcome everything and entered a world of crisp suits and headlining UFC 220. 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