Top 5 African fighters in UFC history
The UFC has put on events all over the world in its near-three decade history, from Abu Dhabi and Argentina to Australia and the UK. However, the UFC has never visited Africa, but that could be about to change.
The UFC now has some stellar talent from Africa, with three fighters from the continent currently holding UFC gold and several top prospects behind them.
With UFC President Dana White discussing the idea of opening a UFC Performance Institute in Africa and looking to put on the promotion’s first African event in 2022, more talent could begin to emerge from the continent soon.
For now, though, here is a look at the top five African fighters in UFC history to date.
#1 UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou (Cameroon)
The UFC’s current heavyweight champion originally hails from Cameroon. He has already arguably staked his claim as one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history.
Francis Ngannou made his octagon debut back in 2015 and immediately made a splash, destroying Luis Henrique with a brutal second-round knockout. Since then, a total of ten more opponents have fallen to Ngannou, eight of them winding up unconscious after feeling the brutal power of the Predator’s hands.
Nobody in the UFC hits quite like Ngannou, who only seems to have to touch an opponent to badly hurt them.
Most impressively, though, the list of Ngannou’s victims includes some of the best heavyweights of all time. That includes former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski, Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos as well as Stipe Miocic, who was knocked out by Ngannou to win the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 260.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like any heavyweight is capable of stopping the Predator, which means his title reign could last for a while. There’s absolutely no doubt that in a list of the greatest UFC fighters to hail from Africa, Ngannou belongs near the top.