"He always talked about Mike Tyson" - Francis Ngannou's life comes full circle in his mother's emotional narration of his journey

Francis Ngannou has made a career out of defying the odds and doing the impossible. After his initial loss to then-UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 220, the MMA community wrote him off as a hype job whose poor defensive wrestling would always be his undoing at the top of the sport.

Yet, in their rematch at UFC 260, Ngannou stunned the world with a seismic knockout over the man that many believed would beat him again. After his departure from the UFC, few would have thought it possible that he'd secure a boxing match with Tyson Fury, but the two are now set to clash this Saturday (28 October).

Ahead of their matchup, Ngannou has revealed that it will be the first time his family will be in attendance for one of his fights. Furthermore, he is being trained by his childhood hero, Mike Tyson, for the bout. This was something his mother touched on (at 5:53 minutes) in a video posted to his YouTube channel:

"When he was little, he watched boxing movies. We refused to see, but he always saw and he always talked about Mike Tyson. And at one point he told his brothers to always call him 'American boy.'

"When his little sister called him 'American boy,' I asked her, 'American boy is who?' She tells me that Francis asked her to call him 'American boy.' I said 'honey, please don't ever call him that again.'"

While the support of his family will motivate him, Francis Ngannou has a daunting task come Saturday. Tyson Fury is widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time and boasts an unbeaten record. However, Francis Ngannou believes in his own power and is aiming to knock him out.

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Francis Ngannou's world-record punch

Perhaps Francis Ngannou's most well-known knockout is his first-round uppercut against Alistair Overeem at UFC 218 back in December 2017. While fans are well aware of 'The Predator's' thunderous knockout power, just how powerful are his punches? As it turns out, their power is record-breaking.

Back in 2018, Ngannou set the world record for the hardest punch ever recorded (h/t @francisngannou on Instagram). He did so on a PowerKube, which measured the power of his punch based on units measured from a combination of speed, force, and accuracy. Ngannou scored 129,161 units, eclipsing the previously held record of 114,000 by Tyrone Spong.