[DANNY] And I've got a quote from Tyson Fury here.
I read that he tweeted at you,
"I would eat him up and spit him out seven times a day."
That's what Tyson Fury said about you.
Do you think that you'd have Tyson in the ring?
I think I can take everybody.
[DANNY] Can you tell me,
where were you born and what was your childhood like?
I was born in Cameroon, in a small village named Batié.
In my village, there was nothing there.
I mean, there's a small village.
We didn't even have a light.
We didn't have anything.
I grew up in a small house,
and sometimes we are sleeping,
if it's raining, it's just gonna leak inside the house,
because the ceiling was all messed up.
So we grew up in that condition.
You were fighting every day to have work, to eat.
So how come you are going to think about gym or fighting?
My older brother and I - he is older than me,
he's two years older than me -
so we have to find something to provide, to work.
So we went to the sand mine,
because we had an uncle
who worked in the sand mine.
So we were going with him to work.
And at first, it was very hard to shovel sand at age nine.
I was just so little, but lucky us, we were strong.
[DANNY] When you were working in the sand mine,
did you actually always think, 'I want to be a fighter?'
Not, like, a fighter,
but one thing was for sure: I knew I didn't belong there.
But to say it out loud
was like insulting other people that was there.
Somehow, I always had a higher expectation of myself.
I always view myself
like somebody who can get something done,
or at least somebody who can try.
If he doesn't get it done, at least he tried.
I left school at 17,
still doing small jobs at town for five years
until I was 22.
I'm like, 'Okay, I'm done surviving.
I really have to live my life now.
It doesn't matter what is the outcome.
If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
At least I'm living my dream.'
So that's how I left everything in the village
and went to the city, to Douala.
I first went to Yaoundé.
It was really hard.
Then I went to Douala, found a gym, started training.
[DANNY] That's quite late to start training,
isn't it?
That's that's what everybody says.
Oh, I'm like, 'Oh, it's late.
Oh, you never take care of yourself.
You're always sick.
You don't go to the hospital.
Oh, forget about it.'
Oh man.
I heard everything about it.
But I was so stubborn.
I love it so much that I'm like,
I finally had a opportunity to do this.
I've been waiting for this for my entire life.
I mean, I always knew
that even though I love this sport so much,
even though I love combat sport so much,
Cameroon is not a way for me to...
...shine.
So I knew there had to be somewhere else,
but where and how to go?
I can't afford a visa.
I can't afford anything.
I can't even afford a plane ticket.
So that was the biggest, the hardest part.
But what I did realise was that boxing was more...
...was bigger in Europe.
I mean, I would've always liked America, preferably,
but Europe was the only continent
that you can go to from Africa - to Europe.
[DANNY] The journey you went through
is unbelievable.
You started from Cameroon
and then went into the neighboring -
Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, Morocco.
Like, 25 people in the back of a small pickup truck.
And everybody would be holding something like this.
And they're going 80 miles per hour
in the desert.
And everybody has to hold on to something,
because otherwise you will fall,
and if you fall, they are not stopping.
[DANNY] So you end up in Morocco,
and then from Morocco you're trying to get into Europe.
Yeah.
[DANNY] And you had multiple attempts.
Multiple attempts.
[DANNY] Trying to cross the Mediterranean.
Yeah.
Even multiple attempts also trying to jump the fence
in Melilla.
[DANNY] What would they do to you
when they caught you?
So usually in the fence,
when they caught you in the fence,
you get beat up, really beat up.
Basically, if you are a big guy, because there,
they just know that for them, they assume that
the biggest guy is the leader.
In the ocean, when they caught you there, because yes,
in the middle of the ocean with your little inflatable boat,
you can't do anything.
So when they caught you, they'll bring you to jail
for a couple of days.
Kind of send you down, down until Oujda,
which is way south.
And then from Oujda, they'll bring you,
not in the middle of the desert, but...
somewhere in the beginning, a little bit far,
so for you to go back.
[DANNY] What was the closest you came
and then you were stopped?
That was in December, 2012.
And then that was the first time that I was
kind of like a captain.
Those kids that convinced their brother to buy a boat
and bring it.
And I was a captain, because I'd been there so many times.
But we paddled about three hours,
so we were sure that we made it,
that we were gonna get rescued by Red Cross or something.
And there wasn't a coast guard anymore.
There was this ship for the Moroccan army.
They were going from somewhere, I don't know, big ship.
I don't know where they were coming from
and were going to, but they were behind us.
They passed us.
And then go ahead,
and then turn and come in front of us.
So with that big ship in front of you like this,
you don't even know where you were going.
You don't know where is the south or where is the north.
And they called the coast guard to come get us.
And since I think that was my sixth...
my fifth time? My sixth time.
And since that day, I was so upset that I was like,
'Okay, whenever I touch this water, I'm not coming back.'
I try six times.
I fail six times.
Then the seventh time, I succeeded.
Even when you made it, yes, you made it.
You are in Spain's territory, but still.
Because when you get there, when the Red Cross rescues you,
they give you to the police, to the border security,
to control, and obviously you have no papers,
so they'll kind of like put you in jail.
And that's like torture.
They kind of play with your mind.
Have you ever seen those movies where they caught somebody,
and one interrogated him and put him in the room like this,
put all white light on him for three days?
They didn't do that.
But that's how you feel.
You feel that pressure, like, 'Okay, I'm done, guys.
If you wanna send me back, send me back now,
but leave me alone, set me free.
I can't do this anymore.'
And we were there for, like, two months.
Yeah.
So you were in Europe, but kind of like,
'Can you please let me go?
I mean, I'd rather you bring me back to Morocco.'
[DANNY] And then once you were released
from the Spanish jail,
you eventually made your way to Paris.
The next day I found... I just walked around,
looked at a gym.
Then I met a guy, Didier Carmont, in the gym.
And I think that guy is the reason why
I stayed in Paris.
The way that he treated me,
and how he kind of looked after me,
I think he made me feel a little comfortable,
like relaxing.
And then, that's how I stay in Paris.
[DANNY] So now after 14 months of hardship,
you are about to start doing the thing
that you wanted to do,
which was train and fight.
Did that fill you with so much excitement?
Still now, I think that's arguably
the best moment of my life.
I was so happy, so excited, full of enthusiasm,
and people were telling me,
people were talking to me,
and knowing that I'm sleeping in the street,
and they would be like, 'Something is not right here.
This guy is homeless, but he seems very excited.
We might be missing something here.'
My own problem has always been to have an opportunity,
to be in a land of opportunity.
[DANNY] 'Cause the other moment
that must be the happiest moment of your life
must be when you became the Heavyweight Champion.
By the time I became the Heavyweight Champion of the world,
I think I've been through so many cool things.
A lot of good things have happened in my life.
And so it was a process.
It's not like I just wake up one day
and become World Champion.
Even that moment, getting to Paris
was a part of becoming Heavyweight Champion.
But this one was a unique and first opportunity ever.
I felt free for the first time in my life.
I felt like I have my own chance.
[DANNY] I'm gonna ask you some questions now
just about yourself and your future.
'Cause you're Heavyweight Champion of the world, huge title.
But also, you have the world record
for the hardest ever recorded punch.
That's what they said.
[DANNY] I've got it here,
it says it's like getting hit by a Ford Escort
going at full speed, is what they say about the power.
I never feel it
so I don't know.
I want it to stay like this.
I don't wanna feel it.
[DANNY] You've had your fights outside the ring too.
You fought with UFC slightly over pay disputes
and stuff like that.
Now, how do you feel about Jake Paul's campaign
to get fighters paid more?
I mean, I have heard a lot of things about what he said,
or a lot of comments about him, but personally,
I think everything that he said makes sense.
Personally, I think,
because UFC is a big industry today,
and this industry, you have to remember that
it's built on fighters.
It's based on fighters.
Without fighters, the industry is nothing.
So personally, I will even go farther and say,
fighters need an advocate,
somebody who advocates for them in the board meeting.
Somebody who will defend your right,
because yes, we are in the... how they call this? Monopoly.
Somebody makes the rules and decides, 'Oh, that's the rule.
Oh, you bring the rules.'
Which rule?
'Oh, I just make it up.'
You can't fight.
You can't argue that, you can't fight it.
At some point, we need some management about that.
[DANNY] And now I wanna talk about
potential fights in the future.
Obviously, we're filming this today,
it's just before the Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte fight.
There have been rumours
that one day there might be a super fight
between you and Tyson.
I think it's more than rumours.
I want it for sure.
And I know Tyson wants it.
So that's why it eventually will happen in the future.
When?
I don't know, but I know it's gonna happen.
[DANNY] You fancy him to beat Dillian Whyte tonight?
Yeah.
If we wanna keep this fight going,
if we wanna see this fight next year, yes.
He better win tonight.
He sent me the same message.
He said the same thing to me last time.
So I'm returning him the same thing.
[DANNY] And I've got a quote from Tyson Fury here.
I read that he tweeted at you,
"I would eat him up and spit him out seven times a day."
That's what Tyson Fury said about you.
Do you think that you'd have Tyson in the ring?
I think I can take everybody.
Even the fact that I'm here, we are discussing about it,
something will make sense.
It's just the proof that I can make it.
He's a great boxer.
One of the best to ever do it.
Personally, I think he's a show guy.
He's a good show guy.
He likes to have fun.
He's cool.
And what I love about him, he's a free man.
He speaks free.
He lives free.
He's not caged.
And I like that attitude.
10 years ago, I wasn't in the picture.
Not even in the corner, like a dot.
So I have my own chance.
Obviously, it's not my comfort zone.
I know that he's an expert in that discipline,
but man, don't never count me out.
[DANNY] Your family in your village,
they must be so proud of what you've achieved.
Yeah, they were proud at some point,
basically at the beginning, but with time,
it became not for my family anymore.
It became for the entire country.
My family, they cannot
claim me.
They cannot say, 'Oh, it's our Francis.'
They will get beat up.
It's Cameroonian Francis.
Heavyweight Champion.
We have seen a lot of heavyweight champions,
and after me, there will be a lot of heavyweight champions,
and I will just be one of them,
one of hundred or thousands of them.
I would not choose to do any of those things at all,
to be in that, to go to that route.
But I think that's what defined me from my childhood,
to all the way that I get to get there.
When I think about it, I think that's what makes it even...
that's the beautiful part of it.
My story, my life, that's mine and mine only.
That belongs to me.