Kassim Ouma: The Picture of Confidence.
“I haven’t watched Karmazin but once the bell rings, I’ll make things happen and it’ll go how I want the fight to go.”–Kassim “The Dream†Ouma.
| Kassim Ouma is one of the special types of fighters that simply ooze confidence. Many boxers are confident, cocky, arrogant or even delusional, but Ouma is different in that he has faced and beaten a laundry list of some of the best light middleweights based in the U.S. Outside the ring, “The Dream” is a happy go lucky type, quick with a good word and a smile that lights |  © Curtis McCormick |
up any room. Inside the ropes, it’s a whole different ball game as the native Ugandan who makes his home in Florida is a relentless volume puncher with an iron chin who simply doesn’t run out of energy. Watch any of his fights and it is easy to see why he’s one of the most avoided men in the game.
The list of victims on Ouma’s resume is impressive: Verno Phillips (twice), Kofi Jantuah, JC Candelo, Angel Hernandez, Carlos Bojorquez, Alex Bunema, Michael Lerma, Kuvanych Toygonbayev, Tony Marshall, Jason Papillon, Pedro Ortega, James Coker and a stoppage of Darrell Woods turned no contest due to Ouma’s post-fight test returning a positive for marijuana.
Next weekend Kassim, 21-1-1 (13), will look to make the second defense of the IBF crown he won from Phillips in October of last year. The man in the opposite corner is Roman “Made in Hell” Karmazin, a former two time European titlist who beat middleweight world champion Keith Holmes in an eliminator this past April. Ouma isn’t all that familiar with Karmazin but is confident the Russian will come up short next weekend. “I haven’t watched Karmazin but once the bell rings, I’ll make things happen and it’ll go how I want the fight to go,” he said.
It may not be as simple as that as Karmazin, 33-1-1 (21), is an experienced European operator who has only lost to Spaniard Javier Castillejo, a former WBC and European champion. The thirty-three-year-old has turned back the aforementioned Keith Holmes, Michael Rask, Sergey Tatesvosyan, Jorge Araujo and David Walker while having a no contest with Papillon (stopped due to cut from accidental head-butt) the only opponent he shares with Ouma.
“The Dream” is well aware that Karmazin may turn out to be his toughest test yet but he also knows it is the only way to get to the fights he really wants, lucrative unification bouts with the other titlists at light middleweight. “This is going to be a very, very tough fight for me,” stated Ouma. “But I’ll be going in there and taking care of business like I always do. I’m ready and can’t wait for it all to begin.”
Currently the WBC has no champion at light middleweight while the WBA is also in flux. Daniel Santos holds the WBO version and IBF champion Ouma just wants to get anyone with a world title belt around the waist in the ring. “Just give me the chance and you will see that no one at 154 can last with me. I don’t care who I fight; I’ll fight “Winky†Wright, Bernard Hopkins anyone. It doesn’t matter because I will prove that I’m the best.”
www.SaddoBoxing.com would like to thank Kassim Ouma and Tom Moran for making this article possible.
Curtis McCormick can be reached at thomaspointrd@aol.com