Roman Decisions Ouma

Former International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma (25-4-1, 15 KOs) lost a 10-round split decision to the tough Saul Roman (28-4, 24 KOs) tonight at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Ouma, 28, appeared to take Roman too lightly, as he was outworked from the first round of the fight. The final judges’ scores were 95-93, 96-93 and 94-95, the last card going to Ouma.

The bout seemed identical to Ouma’s loss to Russian Roman Karmazin in July 2005, as Roman came out hard from the start of the fight, outworking Ouma - a slow starter - and piling up a huge lead after six rounds. By the time Ouma began making a late surge, he needed a knockout to win the fight. He came close, dropping Roman in the 8th round, courtesy of a low blow that the referee didn’t seem.

However, Ouma was unable to follow up with any legitimate shots to put the tough-chinned Roman away. The loss is a major disappointment for the southpaw Ouma, who had hopes of landing another title shot in the near future, perhaps against Kelly Pavlik or one of the European middleweight champions, Arthur Abraham or Felix Sturm. Despite the loss, Ouma still remains in the thick of things and only needs one or two good wins to be right back in the heat of things.

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Posted November 2nd, 2007 l 151 Views

Tags: Boxing, Kassim Ouma