When Francis Ngannou was nine years old, he started work. For many, the idea that a child would have to become a breadwinner remains an alien concept, incredulous to hear.
For many around the world, and in the French-Cameroonian fighter's hometown of Baite, it was a way of life, and the expectation. For Ngannou, he was no different.
Starting out in a sand quarry, he soon came to realise that there may only be one other path forward for him - to turn his frame towards fighting, and make his way in the ring.
Almost thirty years later, Ngannou has achieved his dreams - and then some. The star has come a long way from living in a hut in one of the most remarkable sporting stories.
He left Cameroon more than a decade ago, and crossed multiple nations to reach Europe. He walked through the Sahara desert, sailed the Mediterranean in an inflatable dinghy.
Ahead of his return to MMA this month at PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants against Renan Ferreira, Ngannou returned to Baite to explain his roots, and how he came to leave.
"I was nine and we had to start working," he recalls in a DAZN documentary. "There was no alternative, otherwise we would have done it.
"When I was thirteen, that’s when I came to the conclusion that I had to be a professional boxer. It was a decision I made alone.
"I had matured this decision over the years because it was hard. You had to be lucky. To leave home without knowing if you’ll ever come back. Lots left and never came back."
Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images
Many make the immigrant journey from Africa and parts of Asia towards Europe, looking for a greater life. Most never make it to the end, the odds stacked against them.
It makes Ngannou's success all the more incredible, and he admits there are things he looks back on from his quest to reach another continent that he still cannot fathom.
"You are unconscious of the dangers that surround you, the dangers you are exposed to" he added.
"Pumping up a swimming pool dinghy and putting it on the Mediterranean Sea hoping you’ll be saved by the Red Cross.
"That’s when you say to yourself, “OK, I have lost everything, there is no way I am turning back now”. I’m going ahead, no matter what. Many times, you were afraid for your life.
"But then again, you had to live for something or die for something. Things that I have done before, I still can’t believe it, even though I was the one living them."
Ngannou has forged a career since in Europe, then North America and now in Saudi Arabia, with boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Even after all these years however, he still recalls his harrowing journey with difficulty, as he prepares to move forward once again in the Professional Fighters League.
"It’s hard to even explain to somebody and expect them to understand," he adds. "But at the time, I really didn’t think it was that dangerous.
"Your life is between dangerous situations, drama, that you’re used to here. Here is Morocco, here is Africa, here is Europe and when you get that close, you never come back."
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