Cruiserweight Franco "Thunderbird" Wanyama (7 February 1968 - 21 March 2019[1]) in Kampala, was a Ugandan amateur middleweight and professional cruiser/heavyweight boxer of the 1980s, '90s and 2000s.

He was an amateur representative of Uganda at middleweight in the Boxing at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, losing to eventual bronze medal winner Chris Sande of Kenya, and as a professional won the BeNeLux heavyweight title, BeNeLux cruiserweight title, Commonwealth cruiserweight title, and World Boxing Federation (WBF) cruiserweight title, and was a challenger for the Commonwealth cruiserweight title against Chris Okoh, his professional fighting weight varied from 181 lb (82 kg; 12 st 13 lb), i.e. cruiserweight to 192 lb (87 kg; 13 st 10 lb), i.e. heavyweight.

Franco made his professional debut on 25 December 1989 against Dutch fighter John Held (7-13-2) it ended a 6-round points draw.

In 1993 he won a bout against another future world champion, Johnny Nelson, who was disqualified for repeated holding.

In 1995 he was matched with former world champion Thomas Hearns but the fight was called off at the last minute and Hearns was replaced by ranked Heavyweight Jimmy Thunder, Wanyama and gave away a 30 pounds in weight but still came away with a points victory.