Sadam Ali

Sadam Ali (born September 26, 1988) is an American former professional boxer who held the WBO junior middleweight title from 2017 to 2018.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Three weeks after the Chicago tournament, Ali participated in a "USA vs. China and Kazakhstan" exhibition event held in Zunyi.

Ali's doping test at the exhibition returned positive for Cathine, a banned stimulant found in the illegal Yemeni drug Khat.

Ali accepted a voluntary indefinite suspension on November 22, 2007.

However, he maintained his innocence and appealed to the International Boxing Association ("AIBA") to overturn the test results, Ali hired an attorney to challenge the findings and allegations.

Ali argues he had taken Cathine inadvertently after contracting a cold in China, but widespread use of stimulant drug Khat is known among the Yemeni American community.

His doctor later admitted medicines he had given Ali, when mixed together could have created the positive test for Cathine.

The Olympic Games Committee bars cathine in concentrations of over five micrograms per milliliter in urine.

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 infraction carried a potential two-year suspension from amateur competition, which would have disqualified him from the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In February 2008, Ali agreed to drop his challenges in exchange for a three-month ban retroactive to the date on which he had originally accepted his voluntary suspension.

Since his ban had expired on February 22, 2008, Ali was allowed to participate in the two remaining Olympic qualification tournaments held in the Spring of 2008.

Ali qualified for the 2008 Olympics by finishing in second place at the AIBA 1st Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in March 2008.

He defeated Jesus Cuadro of Venezuela in the quarterfinal round, and Juan Nicolas Cuellas of Argentina in the semifinal round.

He lost by decision in the final round to Cuba's Yordenis Ugás by a score of 13-5.

round.

On August 11, 2008, Ali was outboxed at the Olympic Games in his opening match, losing by decision to Georgian Popescu of Romania, by a score of 20-5.

Ali turned professional after the 2008 Olympics.

His overall amateur record was 89-19, including a win over Terence Crawford.

On January 17, 2009, Ali made his pro debut and needed just 1:42 to defeat Ricky Thompson.

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.

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).

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.

He also challenged once for the WBO welterweight title in 2016.