UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou continues to make real progress in his recovery from knee surgery after he released footage of him walking without crutches.

Within the context of mixed martial arts, it’s hard to think of many fighters as scary as Francis Ngannou. The man known as ‘The Predator’ is able to strike fear into most men and while a parade of fighters in his division will believe they can beat him, that’s far easier said than done.

The 35-year-old has been reinventing his game with each and every passing fight and in his last outing at UFC 270, he turned into a wrestling machine in order to get past contender Ciryl Gane.

Unfortunately, in the process of doing so, he further aggravated a knee injury he’d been dealing with in the weeks leading up to fight night.

He was required to have surgery shortly after the pay-per-view and now, fans are watching and waiting to see when he’ll be able to get back into the Octagon.

It’s expected that he’ll be off for the remainder of 2022 or, at the very least, until the final big event of the year.

However, in his latest Instagram update, Ngannou can be seen walking without crutches whilst also taking part in several strength-building exercises.

“Today I’ve been walking without crutches even though I’m, like, scared, I’ve been doing it.”

Given that he’s just three and a half weeks removed from surgery, we’d say things are going pretty well.

What does the future hold for Ngannou?

When it comes to having options in the MMA sphere, very few individuals are as blessed as Francis Ngannou.

The UFC is likely to create an interim heavyweight belt this summer and when Ngannou comes back, he’ll probably have to try and unify the belts again - as he did against Gane.

Stipe Miocic, Tai Tuivasa and Jon Jones are all in contention but beyond that, there’s also a chance he could jump ship to professional boxing for a showdown with Tyson Fury.

The possibilities truly are endless between the two sports, and Francis is well aware of that.