The president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has elevated Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou, to the rank of Knight of the Order of Valor. The recognition contained in a presidential decree signed on November 18 comes a month after the Cameroonian flattened Professional Fighters League (PFL) 2023 global league heavyweight champion, Brazilian Renan Ferreira to become inaugural PFL Super Fight heavyweight champion.
Ngannou made his long-awaited return to Mixed Martial Arts last month, dispatching his opponent, Ferreira with brutal ground strikes in the opening stanza of his first MMA bout in 22 months on Saturday, October 19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In the presidential decree, president Biya who about same time last year raised “The Predator” to the rank of Commander of the Order of Valor, said the latest promotion was on “exceptional basis”.
The recognition is conferred on someone who has performed public or customary duties with distinction for a period of at least 20 (twenty) years and/or attest of particularly outstanding professional practice in a corps. Ngannou has brought pride to Cameroon as one of the world’s biggest combat sports stars.
Ngannou, 38, returned to the cage for the Professional Fighters League (PFL) event dubbed “Battle Of The Giants” after his high-profile transition to boxing with heavyweight bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua following his departure from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
The Cameroonian martial artist had been though a serious ordeal this year, burying his 15-month-old son, Kobe, in May. Then contemplated retirement before resolving to fight in memory of his son to whom he dedicated the victory against Ferreira.
The latest recognition of the athlete by the Head of State is a great motivation to other budding Cameroonian mixed martial artists like Godlove Shey whose dream is to be like Ngannou.
Now training in Yaounde after escaping from his native village in the Donga Mantung Division of the volatile English-speaking North West Region because of the drawn-out armed conflict, Shey says he had also contemplated giving up, but when he saw Ngannou “bring down almighty Tyson Fury” he told him himself that he can also do it.
Shey uses rudimentary tools for training in Yaounde but dreams to make it to the big cage one day like Ngannou. In a country where meritocracy has apparently been thrown to the dustbin, Shey says the latest recognition by President Paul Biya to Ngannou, who he describes as son of a nobody, is another motivation for him to dream big.
“Though I have not met Ngannou in my life, I think these recognitions are a big motivation for me to become like him,” he said.
