Sadam Ali

Ali was born in 1988 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised there by his Yemeni-immigrant parents, and has four sisters and a brother. Ali began boxing at the Bed-Stuy Boxing Club in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant at the age of eight, after being inspired by Yemeni-British boxer "Prince" Naseem Hamed.[2]

Ali is a Junior Olympic National Champion, a PAL National Champion, a U-19 National Champion, and a two-time New York City Golden Gloves champion.

In 2006, Ali won the National Golden Glove Championship in the featherweight division in 2006 at the age of 17. Ali then represented the United States at the 2006 World Junior Championships, where he won a bronze medal after losing in the semifinal round to eventual gold medalist Yordan Frometa of Cuba by a score of 41-39,[3] in a bout in which two points were deducted from Ali because he was weaving too low.

In 2007, Ali moved up to lightweight and again won the National Golden Glove Championship in his new division.[4] Ali is only the second boxer to win it in two different weight classes in consecutive years in New York. Later that year, he was upset by Jerry Belemontes of Corpus Christi, Texas 13-12 in the quarterfinal round of the U.S. Boxing Championships.[5] However, in August 2007, Ali defeated Belemontes and finished in first place in the lightweight division at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Houston, becoming the first boxer from the five boroughs of New York City to win at the trials since Riddick Bowe in 1988. While this did not immediately qualify him to represent the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he became the sole American lightweight permitted to compete in three Olympic qualification tournaments to be held over the ensuing eight months, for one of the six berths allocated to lightweights from the Americas. Ali was the first Arab-American to represent the United States in the Olympics.

The first of the three Olympic qualification tournaments was the World Amateur Boxing Championship, which was held in Chicago in the fall of 2007. Ali was eliminated in a competitive second round match by Armenia's Hrachik Javakhyan. As only one lightweight from the Americas qualified in Chicago, five berths remained open.

On January 17, 2009, Ali made his pro debut and needed just 1:42 to defeat Ricky Thompson.[10] Ali recorded a third round stoppage of Julias Edmunds in his first live televised fight on ESPN on July 16, 2010, at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. He returned to The Prudential Center on August 21, 2010, in his second televised bout and knocked out Lenin Arroyo on the undercard to Tomas Adamek versus Michael Grant. On December, 9th to finish the year Ali on his 2nd PPV event fought to a unanimous decision against Manuel Guzman to record his 11th win. On April 9, in his 3rd PPV televised bout Ali knocked out Javier Pérez in the 3rd Round On the Tomas Ademek undercard.

November 6, 2010 Brooklyn, N.Y., welterweight Sadam Ali (10-0, 6 KOs), the 2008 U.S. Olympic lightweight and the first Arab-American boxer to go to the Olympics, scored an overwhelming second-round knockout of New Orleans' Gary Bergeron (12-6, 7 KOs).

Ali started fast, hammering a defensive Bergeron in the first round. He was landing solid uppercuts and left hands to the body before dropping him with a left hook to the chin. Bergeron survived, but Ali was crushing him with combinations as the round came to an end. Ali landed 37 of 92 punches in the opening round.

It was more of the same in the second round. While Ali was blasting him with left hook after left hook, Bergeron could little more than try to hold on, but he couldn't even do that effectively. Ali dropped him with an uppercut and was smashing him until a three-punch combination to the head badly staggered him again, forcing referee Lindsey Paige to stop the fight at 2 minutes, 18 seconds. Ali outlanded Bergeron 70-8 in the fight.

Ali signed with Golden Boy Boxing on June 24, 2013 to promote his boxing career.[11]

On November 8, 2014, Sadam Ali took on Juan Carlos Abregu and was heading into the fight as a big underdog. Ali had upset the odds and defeated Abregu, the fight was stopped in the 9th round and ruled as a TKO victory which meant Ali had won the welterweight title. Ali had knocked down his opponent in the 6th and 9th round before the fight had been stopped.[12]

On April 25, Ali defeated Francisco "Chia" Santana in a unanimous decision Madison Square Garden, Ali landed 196 of 588 punches (33 percent). Ali was quoted after the fight saying, "I'm thrilled with my victory," Ali said. "It's a dream come true to fight here at Madison Square Garden. I'd like to fight a top-10 contender in my next fight. He was a tough fighter. He hits very hard, but I was able to take his punches."[13]

• List of light-middleweight boxing champions

• Boxing record for Sadam Ali from BoxRec
• 2006 World Junior Championships
• Sadam Ali Amateur Boxing Record