Prior to this past weekend, everything was looking up for Ramla Ali in 2023.
In May, Ramla divulged the exciting news that Letitia Wright, best known for assuming the role of Shuri in the two Black Panther movies, would play her in a biographical film titled In the Shadows to be directed by BAFTA award winner Anthony Wonke (Fire in the Night and Unmasking Jihadi John).
Before that, she unknowingly and inconceivably fought with a collapsed lung on the Serrano/Cruz undercard back in February, somehow summoning the stamina to outpoint previously undefeated Avril Mathie and capture her first professional championship. This led to an agreement in principle with Yamileth Mercado to challenge for her WBC super-bantamweight title by the end of this year.
Ali’s immediate hopes of world title contention came crashing down 33 seconds into the eighth round in New Orleans Saturday night, along with Ramla herself, courtesy of a left hook thrown by Julissa Alejandra Guzman that would have made Joe Frazier proud.
She had been preparing to contend with Guzman’s textbook Mexican walk-forward battle strategy by utilizing Sulem Urbina as her chief sparring partner throughout a particularly rigorous training camp. It also seemed to work to Ramla’s advantage that she is coached by Manny Robles who knows the Mexican boxing textbook backwards and forwards. Practicing for difficulties and dealing with them in real time during the heat of battle are two very different things, as Guzman made Ali learn the hard way.
A world title challenger who went into Saturday’s bout with a 12-2-2 (6 KOs) record, Guzman was a considerable step up in competition for Ali. Necessarily so, as she progresses in her climb toward the professional ranks’ elite level. For many, there will be setbacks on this sometimes slippery slope fraught with perilous obstacles. Julissa Guzman proved to be one such stumbling block for Ramla Ali.
Guzman rebounded from a loss to Yolanda Vega in her 2015 pro debut to embark on a 13-fight unbeaten streak, which included a pair of draws and was halted by the aforementioned Yamileth Mercado in February 2021 to account for her only other defeat.
Defending her IBF Intercontinental super-bantamweight title against Guzman in the second co-feature beneath the Regis Prograis/Danielito Zorrilla main event, Ramla started off well Saturday night by boxing behind her jab and sitting down on her power punches, a technique Manny Robles has been working with her diligently on.
It was initially Guzman’s overhand right that was giving Ali problems. Julissa rocked Ali with it in round four and used her right again to force the Somali warrior down to the seat of her pants in her own corner with less than ten seconds left of the fifth, the first time to that point Ramla had been decked in her pro career. It wouldn’t be the last.
Ali shook off the knockdown and recovered nicely, although Guzman made what would turn out to be a game-changing adjustment in rounds six and seven by making more liberal use of her left hook. Right after Ramla popped Guzman with a quick left/right combination at the 30 second mark of the eighth, the Mexican they call ‘La Roquera’ unleashed a left hook that deposited Ali flat on her back. Sitting up unsteadily and glassy-eyed, Ramla was unable to beat the ten count administered in what some have complained was rapid fashion by referee Keith Hughes.
The victorious Guzman will look to leverage this victory over Ali into a potential rematch with Yamileth Mercado now that she has spoiled for Ramla the world title opportunity a win for her last weekend would have all but guaranteed.
Naturally, there will be critics and skeptics who will be happy to laugh Ramla Ali off as merely another Matchroom hype job. They will be quick to marginalize Ali by quipping that she is better off sticking to strutting down the runway of a fashion show in a Christian Dior dress rather than lacing up a pair of gloves and stepping between the ropes of a boxing ring.
First, why can she not do both? Secondly, I would remind these gloating naysayers that surviving through great adversity, and thriving not despite it but because of it, is what defines Ramla as a human being. Just as she persevered through the Somali civil war and endured the unbelievable hardships of her family’s escape from the bloodshed and butchery in overcrowded boats and refugee camps, so too will she overcome this stunning but in no way career-defining loss to learn, recalculate, and resume her pugilistic journey.
Earlier in the evening, 2020 Olympian and Team USA captain Ginny Fuchs improved her pro record to 3-0 by turning away the spirited challenge of Indeya 'Zucar' Rodriguez. The five-foot-tall New Orleans native brought the fight to Fuchs all night in this entertaining eight-rounder in the flyweight division but Ginny ultimately prevailed by scores of 80-72 (x2) and 79-73.
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