How Ngannou’s fight with Joshua helped him pay off huge debt he owed Kamaru Usman

Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has revealed that he was broke during his last UFC fights and that Nigerian Nightmare Kamaru Usman knew about it and loaned him $200,000 before his final bout.

The Cameroonian mixed martial arts (MMA) artist cum boxer is reported to have paid off the loan following his recent earnings from his last boxing match with British-Nigerian boxer and two-time former unified world heavyweight (UWC) champion, Anthony Joshua.

While Anthony Joshua reportedly scooped as much as $50 million after knocking down Ngannou twice before finally knocking him out cold in the second round, Ngannou reportedly earned a whopping $20 million—times two of what he earned from his fight against British professional boxer and World Boxing Council heavyweight title holder Tyson Fury, whom he reportedly dropped in the third round of his boxing debut in October 2023. These have put him far beyond his earnings throughout his entire six-year career fighting in the octagon as a martial artist. In a recent outing on the “Pound 4 Pound” show hosted by Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo, the 37-year-old new boxer revealed that despite being in the marquee fight on the card, he made just $600,000 against the $500,000 offer that was made to him for his final UFC fight in January 2022 when he beat Ciryl Gane to retain his heavyweight championship in the main event of UFC 270.

Usually, the UFC renews its contract with champions before their last fight on the contracts, but this was not the case with Ngannou, as he outrightly turned down the contract renewal offer while opting to enter a free agency. The champion who disclosed that he was at the time, faced with some scrutiny for reportedly demanding too much, also said that he had been offered almost 10x as much as he received from the last fight to sign a new deal, but though he was broke at the time, he still declined, telling himself that he was more than that. Speaking on the Pound 4 Pound talk show, he said to Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo:

“You were talking earlier about the contract that I turned down. You knew a lot about the stuff that I turned down from the UFC negotiation with my last fight in the UFC. I took $600,000 for my last fight in the UFC, as opposed to the $5 million that they were offering for the same fight. And I was broke. At the time, I owed Usman $200,000. I was broke. It’s true!”

Francis Ngannou had placed a bet on himself when he refused to renew his martial arts promotional contract with Dana White’s company to pursue his boxing dream in 2022. But having achieved his dream, fighting with two of the world’s best, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, and emerging victorious in one of the bouts while making more earnings than he ever did during his martial arts career, it becomes a concern to onlookers to ponder the big question, “Will Francis Ngannou continue his boxing career or is it over?” following the swift knockout by Anthony Joshua, which made him look like an amateur boxer, which he is. Vanguard