Sadam Ali : A Star Is Born?

By Mohamed Horomtallah - 11/10/2014 - Comments

By Mohamed Horomtallah – I never saw Sadam Ali fight until last night and I can’t wait for his next bout! I heard the name here and there. I saw some highlights on YouTube and when I found out he was the co-main event on the Hopkins-Kovalev card, I was curious and intrigued.

The closer the fight got, the more I wanted to find out about him. As a boxing fan, I’m always on the lookout for new blood and something about Ali got me excited. I just felt that the kid was special without having any arguments to back up that reasoning.

The research I did almost made me give up watching the fight. The boxing experts were unanimous! He never fought a solid opponent? That’s not good! He will not be able to rise to the occasion? What bitter experience that would be for the kid! Abregu will catch him and stop him after five or six rounds? Ouch!

By the time the fight started, I had the feeling I was about to watch a remake or a sequel for “Requiem For A Dream”…

After all didn’t we have a kid with no  experience facing a seasoned, in his prime, top level fighter? Let the Slaughter begin!

For the first three rounds, nothing happened and the crowd started booing rather loudly. I felt Ali dominated those rounds but I was still expecting Abregu, who has 29 knock outs and only one loss to Bradley on points, to catch him with something big.

However the dominance Ali showed in the earlier rounds evolved to a beat down when Ali sent  Abregu to the canvas in the sixth round with a right counter and it was the beginning of the end.

Ali kept landing more and more hard punches, most of them counters and in the ninth round, he put Abregu down with a combination and though he was able to get up, Ali continued to pound him, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

Wow, what an impressive performance! A sweet mixture of patience, discipline, speed, counter punching and that sneaky short left hook.

Ali displayed great skills not the least of which is that beautiful footwork and movement. He controlled the ring and the fight against a fighter that was supposed to hurt him and expose him.

This was the biggest test of his young career and he passed it in a spectacular fashion. Watching Ali move inside the ring brought back memories of old school artists.

My humble analysis is that Ali has “grown” from his last two fights and learned a great deal. After last night, he gained more experience and confidence and, as long as he remains a student of the sweet science, the sky’s the limit.

He got the total package : skills, speed, ring IQ, ring generalship, charisma and the looks to take his craft to the top level.

While I was watching the fight on BeIN Sports, I was going back and forth between the English and French channels and the commentators on both channels were in awe of Ali and highly anticipating his next fight. So was I and maybe a few more people.

Before going to bed, I couldn’t help but wonder : was a star just born before our eyes?



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