Francis Ngannou

“Watching some heavyweights like Mike Tyson, he inspired me to work with my speed because he beat people with power, but most of the time, he beat people with speed.”

“The most important thing for me is to win the fight and not what people are going to say.”

“Speed is something that, in the heavyweight division, we don't have a lot of.”

“In Cameroon, kids have many problems. They think everything is lost before they are born. It seems like they are not allowed to dream. They are not allowed to be ambitious. They just accept being the victim of their life.”

“People told me, 'You talk about Europe like it's Heaven. It's not Heaven.”

“The one who intimidates me is myself. I'm scared to fail. That is the thing that makes me the most afraid, to fail. Just to think that I can do a mistake and lose the fight scares me, so that is why I work out a lot: to bring more chance to my size and less chance to my opponent.”

“As a challenger, I need and want to fight some people because that would give me the opportunity to get to the title shot.”

“I'm going to make my own heaven. I'm going to struggle for it. I'm going to fight to earn everything I dream about.”

“I am building a foundation in Cameroon, and it's not just about the sport. The goal of the foundation is not to make a UFC fighter. It's to help kids believe in their dream, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life.”

“The biggest win of my career is coming.”

“I've been in this sport only four years, and I know that I'll keep learning and improving.”

“I keep my head straight toward my goal.”

“There are a lot of people out there who want to fight me. I saw Mark Hunt; he would be a great one. By myself, I want Brock. Brock Lesnar.”

“People easily quit their dream because it's not easy.”

“Just do what you do. Sometimes you do well, and sometimes you do wrong, but you have to just be able to deal with yourself and move forward.”

“At the beginning, my dream was to become a world-class boxer, but then I stepped into MMA. And when I stepped into MMA, it was to have fun. I reminded myself of what was the purpose, of what was the goal: to have fun.”

“When you're used to having nothing, the first time you have something, you get really focused. You know if you lose it, it may not be easy to get it back.”

“Listen to what I'm saying: I'm back. Junior Dos Santos, Alexander Volkov, or revenge against Stipe Miocic. That fight, I didn't do well, and I really want to fix it.”