Game, as they say, recognizes game. And that is nowhere more true than the friendship between soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. The soccer superstar is currently captaining the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr.

Earlier this year, Francis Ngannou was in the country for the build-up to his boxing debut against boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. He met CR7, who is known for his love of combat sports and is an avid UFC fan.

Ngannou learns Cristiano Ronaldo is a fan

The heavyweight revealed that he first met Cristiano Ronaldo at the Four Seasons hotel in Saudi. Ngannou, who will be facing Fury in a ten-round boxing match in Riyadh hours from now, ran into one of the people in the soccer star’s camp. After telling him that Ronaldo was a fan of his (which Ngannou did not think was true), he was brought to meet the 38-year-old in the pool.

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“We were sitting at the Four Seasons hotel which is where he [Cristiano Ronaldo] was living at the time we met. One of his guys named Richie said ‘actually Cristiano is a big fan of Francis’. [And he goes] let me call [Ronaldo]. And then he called Cristiano, and he said like bring them up. And they were in the pool.” Ngannou revealed in an interview with TNT Sports Boxing on YouTube.

Francis Ngannou details meeting Ronaldo for the first time

Ngannou then went to the pool and met Ronaldo, who was warm and welcoming towards ‘The Predator’. The Cameroonian was surprised to learn that the former Portugal captain had a lot of knowledge about his fighting career, even discussing his last UFC fight against Cyril Gane.

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“And then we get up and went up there and saw Cristiano and I was quite surprised.And we shake hands, we greet each other like ‘hey what’s up?‘ And he was very cool very familiar at the same uh from the first time and started talk about stuff, tell me about my career, the fight against Cyril Gane and he knows a lot of thing about me,” ‘The Predator’ said.

Ronaldo also told the former UFC heavyweight champion that he and his family stayed up to watch him fight for about half an hour. “And he was telling me stuff about me and how, uh him and his family they watch my fight at 4:00 a.m…. We were next to the pool there for like 30 minutes or 40 minutes talking about stuff,” Ngannou added.

Clearly, Ngannou and Ronaldo share a mutual respect and admiration for each other. Ronaldo has also gifted Ngannou a Jacob and Co. watch from their limited edition Ronaldo edition worth over $100k recently. What do you think about their relationship? Let us know in the comments section below.

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