{"id":683356,"date":"2026-05-20T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683356\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:53:08","slug":"francis-ngannou-encounters-first-mma-promoter-at-mvp-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/683356\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou encounters first MMA promoter at MVP event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francis
\nNgannou<\/a> recently crossed paths with his first promoter,
\nStephane Chafourier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ngannou (19-3) knocked out Philipe
\nLins<\/a> in the first round of their heavyweight clash at
\nMost Valuable Promotions “Rousey vs. Carano”<\/a> card last weekend
\nin Los Angeles. Chafourier was there to manage his fighter,
\nSalahdine
\nParnasse<\/a>, who also scored a first-round knockout win over
\nKenneth
\nCross<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blast from the Past
\n
\nNgannou came across Chafourier backstage at the Intuit Dome in Los
\nAngeles. Ngannou revealed that Chafourier was his first promoter.
\nNgannou recalls not being paid anything for his first fight, which
\nwas a free tournament. However, \u201cThe Predator\u201d was thrilled when he
\nreceived 2,000 euros ($2,323) for his second fight. Ngannou recalls
\ngoing to a corner and immediately counting his money.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Chafourier. This is my first promoter,\u201d Ngannou said<\/a> while talking to Chafourier. \u201cFirst fight,
\nfree tournament. Second one, I won 2,000 euros. I was so happy. He
\ngave me a stack of 20 euros in an envelope. I went in the corner,
\nwas counting my money, was so excited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ngannou won his first professional fight at 100% Fight via an
\narmbar submission in 2013. However, the future
\nUFC<\/a> champion dropped a unanimous decision in his sophomore
\nouting in the promotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou recently crossed paths with his first promoter, Stephane Chafourier.\u00a0 Ngannou (19-3) knocked out Philipe Lins in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[4225,64,63,786,785,44,85],"class_list":["post-683356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}