Fighter nicknames or monikers often characterize the qualities that they exhibit at the time of their fights. A large chunk of UFC fans may be aware of the moniker that the former UFC interim featherweight champ, Yair Rodriguez, goes by. His nickname, ‘El Pantera’, aptly signifies his high-flying and agile fighting style like a panther. The former UFC heavyweight king, Francis Ngannou, also has his own moniker, which many may agree suits well with his fighting style.

In a 2019 interview with the noted MMA coverage house, ‘MMA Junkie’, Ngannou revealed that his nickname, ‘The Predator’, was more than just a reflection of his fighting style. His moniker also pays homage to noted bodybuilder and Hollywood legend Arnold Schwarzenegger’s once-in-a-lifetime movie, ‘The Predator’.

Francis Ngannou draws his nickname from a scene in The Predator

We may all agree that certain parts of movies or songs get locked into our minds so badly that it’s hard to get rid of them. A similar incident inspired the 37-year-old’s moniker too. In his 2019 interview, Ngannou talked about the 1987 Schwarzenegger classic that provided him with a viable choice of nickname.

He further specified that it was a sequence in ‘The Predator’ that claimed his mind. The Cameroonian described the scene, stating, “It’s when Arnold Schwarzenegger touches the leaf, and there was some green thing. It’s blood. And then he says, ‘If it’s bleeding, that means it could die.”

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Well, Ngannou may have deviated a bit from Schwarzenegger’s original dialogue in the movie. It was, “If it bleeds, we can kill it”. But his words were definitely enough to make people realize which sequence from the movie he was talking about. Here’s a peek at it.

‘The Predator’ also described what exactly attracted him to this sequence in the movie. He said that Schwarzenegger’s “belief” that he could win over the Predator ultimately helped him survive. These words may be enough for a large chunk of fans to realize why Ngannou felt so inspired by the scene.

The strong belief in Francis Ngannou helped him gain the massive stature he boasts today

In Ngannou’s hometown of Batié, Cameroon, nobody even thought of building a career in combat sports. The 37-year-old had to work in a sand mine since he was 10. However, he fell in love with boxing and started dreaming of building a career in combat sports. Ngannou also wanted to earn loads of money to relieve his family from the poverty he had seen throughout his childhood.

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The stature that he boasts today is enough to reveal that he has actually succeeded in his quest. But a very minor portion of the UFC community knows about the extreme hardships that he had to go through on his way. The ones who know about them may happily agree that it was indeed Ngannou’s Schwarzenegger-like belief that helped him achieve such massive stature in the combat sports world today. Do you also agree with this? Or would you like to suggest some other moniker for Ngannou?

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