Francis Ngannou slowly repeats the question-2018 is not the best year in your life? — prepares and pause before you begin to answer.

Ngannou started 2018 with this, actually what was stated by the late Robin Leach, " asking for champagne and caviar dreams."Ngannou started 2018 on difficult Stipe Miocic for a title of the champion on UFC 220 in, probably, the most severe heavyweights the knockout sports beheld.

A month earlier, subsequently such as Nganu devastated Alistair Overim with one of the most awful hooks which you ever wished to see, the President of UFC Dana white slightly had an opportunity to detain the exultation.

As in the days of Ronda Rousey, his fights ended before such as the fans had seen the probability to dig into a box of popcorn. Boyan Mikhailovich was knocked out in 94 seconds. Anthony Hamilton was introduced in 117 seconds. Ngannou needed only 92 seconds, in order to suspend Andrei Arlovski and took only 10 seconds to almost decapitate Overeem.

Snow white was often friends with former heavyweight favorite boxer Mike Tyson, and he no doubt beheld a large amount of Tyson in a powerful 6-foot 5-Cameroon.

It seemed for a while that he was actually anointed. Almost all believed, actually that for the ascent of the throne will need only a couple of great shots.

Now, 13 months later, as he prepares to fight Cain Velasquez on Sunday at the talking Stick Resort arena in Phoenix at the main UFC event at ESPN 1, the hype has vanished.

Oh, Nganu returned to his own old habits in November, destroying Curtis Blades ' rising star in just 45 seconds in a night knockout run in Beijing.

Victory over Blades, but, as impressive as it was, was not able to completely get rid of the stench of his past 2 fights.

Ngannou, is currently 32 and humiliated back-to-back costs in Miocic and derrick Lewis as if the canopy had been lifted from the eye. Now he sees, talks, what he has not seen during this time.

"All my life I have lived with the struggle, and I have faced adversity," he said. “Very large number. Believe me, in my life there was a large number of adversities, but I managed to overcome everything. Somehow I've been lucky enough to create it every time, and it keeps me strong.

“I look at the past year as an academic year. I don't have tremendous skill in this form of sport. I got involved in sports late, and I did not know, in fact, that all, in fact that you have to be able to be successful. This is quite a difficult picture of the sport and you owe the aristocracy how to exist a fighter's life. It's not elementary [technique], it's something more. This realization of this, actually what is necessary in order to be the best. I had to learn this.”

More puzzling than his loss of the title battle mitiku, was his loss to Lewis is actually what nearly all considered one of the worse fights in the UFC situation. That fight, at UFC 226 in Las Vegas, was a time battle so many people were looking forward to, in fact that it put 2 challenging battering Sports in front of a buddy buddy.

But Ngandu spent a huge portion of the fight, moving in a circle, looking for a space that, for example, and none were found. He didn't punch. The administration in his hands is useless, if he never threw them.

What battle caused Ngannou, to make some introspection.

"After this battle, I took the sense, in fact, that I need to review their own goals, to review their own values and to understand for themselves, why do I do it," - said Nganu. “I was obliged to grasp who I am and why I am doing this in order to possess the chance to rectify it.”

He laughed when asked if he had made a decision as to why he was struggling.

He claimed to be from a rather poor family in Africa, and he had far more problems than he had ever felt in a cell. That precedent, in fact he got a title shot than the least through 5 years later sports were very important, including in the case of the universe this was not accepted.

He declared, actually that in the 1st days when it yet wasn't entirely doubts, actually that it is the mixed martial arts, he found on YouTube the term “heavyweight of UFC.” In the first video, he noticed a collection of Cain Velasquez factors.