Francis Ngannou has been redirecting his wealth for several years.
The former UFC heavyweight champion famously made just $600,000 (£440,000) per fight at the height of his mixed martial arts career but still managed to fund a charity.
Six years ago, he launched The Francis Ngannou Foundation with the aim of helping extremely low-income, underserved, and vulnerable populations, marginalized communities, causes and geographical locations often overlooked by mainstream philanthropy in Cameroon and Africa.
Since then, the 37-year-old has helped tackle unnecessary malaria deaths, renovated schools, provided modern teaching tools, handed out food packs and opened two gyms.
Ngannou is set to pocket more money than ever for his next fight.
‘The Predator’ will make his boxing debut against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a 10-round bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this Saturday.
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Both men will earn millions but ‘The Gypsy King’ is already loaded.
The ridiculous difference between how much Fury makes compared to Ngannou was highlighted when they first started discussing a crossover fight in April 2022.
Frank Warren won the right to promote a fight between Fury and Dillian Whyte as he came out on top with a bid of $41million (£32million) in the WBC purse bids.
Ten per cent of this was kept back as a $4.1million (£3.2million) winner’s bonus, while the rest was split 80/20 between the pair.
Fury’s base purse was $29.5million (£23million). After claiming his winner’s bonus for knocking out Whyte in six rounds, his total purse for the fight ended up at $33.6million (£26.2million).
That is a far cry from what Ngannou made during his UFC career.
In fact, Fury earned 56 times more for fighting Whyte than Ngannou did when he outpointed Ciryl Gane over five rounds in his final bout with MMA’s premier promotion.
The 35-year-old recently opened his home to Netflix cameras and exposed the lavish life of luxury his family enjoys during a series called At Home with The Furys.
He lives in a £1.7 million Morecambe mansion with his wife, Paris, and their seven children.
All of the couple’s sons share the same first name and Tyson previously revealed it was because he’s a king and his sons are all princes.
The documentary series showed they live like royals. Wildly expensive holidays, designer clothes and extravagant parties are all part of Fury’s lavish lifestyle.
Despite enjoying the trappings of his fame and fortune, this is not to say the boxing icon doesn’t give back either and is known for supporting men’s mental health charities.
Fury, who is bipolar, publicly struggled with his mental health for years.
He ballooned up in weight as his life spiralled out of control after beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 and was on the brink of suicide before turning his things around.
In 2022, the man whose comeback story has inspired millions released his debut single – a cover of Neil Diamond’s classic Sweet Caroline – to raise money for men’s mental health charity Talk Club.
It seems he can live like a king and look after people, too.
Ngannou may be able to do the same after this weekend.
The Cameroonian knockout artist will continue to earn millions when he returns to MMA as he has signed a lucrative deal to be the face of the Professional Fighters League [PFL] heavyweight division.
Ngannou will make his promotional debut in 2024 and continue to combine his fight career with the foundation that has been at the forefront of everything he has done in recent years.
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