“Being the first in anything is quite scary because no one’s done it before,” Ramla Ali confessed in the lead up to her historic involvement in ‘Rage on the Red Sea’ on Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Certainly no stranger to smashing down doors to achieve firsts in the world of boxing, Ali continued, “You can’t think about those things because you don’t know who’s watching you. You don’t who you’re essentially inspiring.”
The Saudi Arabian royal family reached out directly to Ramla about participating on the hugely anticipated Usyk/Joshua 2 undercard in what would be the first ever women’s boxing match to take place in the Saudi Kingdom.
Accepting this offer is consistent with her personal mission statement and admirable moral code. “Keep striving for equality and through change we will continue to inspire our next generation of daughters,” Ali posted on social media in conjunction with the official fight announcement. The proposal itself represents a significant olive branch being offered by a regime which seems to want to walk back by debatable degrees its terrible track record of human rights abuses, particularly concerning women.
As part of his Vision 2030 initiative to “eradicate the remnants of extremism” within the nation, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman relaxed some of the former restrictions against Saudi women. For example, they are now permitted to operate motor vehicles, obtain passports, and travel abroad. Gender segregation in public places has been largely abolished as well.
However, although Saudi women can now make the pilgrimage to Mecca without a male chaperone, they must do so as part of a coordinated group. Women must still seek permission from a male relative to marry, procure an abortion, undertake a business venture, or depart prison or a domestic abuse shelter. Dress codes continue to be enforced in the more conservative districts.
This has all led critics to denounce what bin Salman calls social reform as little more than smoke and mirrors-type propaganda. While baby steps appear to have been taken in the right direction, some women have bravely spoken out regarding the prohibitions that remain in place against them and paid dearly for it.
Just five days away from fight night in Jeddah, for example, Saudi women’s rights activist Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in prison for what the Kingdom’s Public Prosecution alleged was “providing succor to those seeking to disrupt public order and undermine the safety of the general public and stability of the state, and publishing false and tendentious rumors on Twitter.” First arrested in January 2021 and initially given a six-year sentence, al-Shehab was additionally forbidden from traveling outside Saudi Arabia for another 34 years beyond her prison term, for all intents and purposes making her a lifetime captive of the Saudi Kingdom.
Ramla, a Somali-born Muslim, defended her decision to box in Saudi Arabia by asserting that she believes it is transforming into a “very progressive country” and that she hopes her fight there would keep the momentum moving forward. Alongside Rasha al-Khamis, Saudi Arabia’s first woman to receive certification as a boxing coach, Ali was given the opportunity to lead a Thursday morning training session for women between the ages of 15 and 30 at Jeddah’s Waad Academy.
“It’s been wonderful to spend time with this group of girls today, and I hope they truly believe their ambition is limitless,” Ramla reflected afterward. The barrier-breaking Ali showed up for Friday’s weigh-in symbolically sporting a Jackie Robinson baseball jersey.
Of course, it was not possible for Ramla Ali to write yet another chapter in boxing’s history books without a co-author. 22-year-old Dominican Crystal Garcia Nova was selected as the sister-in-arms with whom Ramla would skirmish in Jeddah. Coming into Saturday’s bout, Garcia had won ten of her twelve contests, all of those victories occurring inside the distance.
It’s worth noting, though, that none of those knockout victims boasted above .500 winning percentages. Their combined record was 30-107, with one opponent making her pro debut. Garcia was coming off a stoppage loss of her own, to Thailand’s still undefeated Phannarai Netisri on May 29 with the WBF and WIBF world super-bantamweight straps on the line.
With so much to say about the historic significance of the boxing match between Ramla Ali and Crystal Garcia Nova, there is far less to talk about with regard to the fight itself. It was all over in 49 seconds.
Sitting down on a cracking overhand right that sent Nova stumbling backward and her mouthpiece skittering across the canvas, Ramla followed in hot pursuit and landed a hard left to the body.
Ali was already in the process of uncorking a right hook just behind the liver shot, but the fact that it grazed Nova was strictly academic as she was already descending to the mat where the fallen Dominican took a knee and a ten-count. And that was all she wrote for this chapter in Ramla Ali’s history-making odyssey.
“It would be nice to get a ten-rounder in next, then fight for a title for sure. Let’s see what the future holds,” Ramla said during her post-fight interview. “My last two fights I’ve been training and competing with a fractured wrist and a fractured toe. So I really need to take some time off now. This was just a massive opportunity I couldn’t say no to, even though I was in a world of pain.”
Sources:
Celine Alkhaldi. Saudi Activist Sentenced to
34 Years in Prison for Twitter Activity (CNN.com, August 17, 2022)
Marco Ferrari. Saudi Female Boxers Take Part
in Training Session Led by Ramla Ali (Al Arabiya News, August 18, 2022)
Week Staff. What Women Can and Can’t Do in
Saudi Arabia (theweek.co.uk, August 25, 2021)
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