Francis Ngannou made history Saturday night, becoming the first African fighter to capture UFC heavyweight gold with a devastating finish over Stipe Miocic at UFC 260.
With Ngannou being born and raised in Cameroon, the African continent now sits at the top of the UFC with three championship belts, tied with South America. Ngannou’s feat was celebrated by fellow UFC middleweight king Israel Adesanya, who hails from Nigeria.
Kamaru Usman, the UFC’s welterweight champion and another native of Nigeria, was standing in Ngannou’s corner at the UFC APEX on Saturday.
“Three kings taking gold back to the land, Africa,” Adesanya posted on his social media. “This is history!! The stories this can inspire!! I’m inspired. Our stories will be told by us.”
“The Last Stylebender” posted a video on his Instagram page showing how he and his friends reacted to Ngannou’s historic second-round knockout, which avenged the first loss of Ngannou’s UFC career back January 2018 when he first attempted to take the heavyweight title from Miocic.
Watch the footage below (click through for video).