Ouma primed for good show

Former world champion Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma is set for his first professional fight in Uganda, since his debut in July 1998.

Ouma, 44, who defeated American Verno Phillips in 2004 to win the IBF Super Welterweight title, faces Kenyan Olympian Rayton Okwiri, 36 on December 26 at the Cricket Oval in Lugogo.

Promoter Stephen Ssembuya of 12 Sports Rounds, the event organiser, was in Mtana Hall, Dar-Es-Salaam, when John Sserunjogi succumbed to an eighth-round knockout to Okwiri in October 2021.

And Sserunjogi weighs on the potentially thrilling encounter. “I will definitely support a fellow Ugandan Ouma, though Okwiri stands higher chances to win because he is younger and more energetic,” Sserunjogi told Daily Monitor.

“But I trust Ouma to use his vast experience to contain Okwiri’s power and he can give us a good show.”

Sserunjogi, who holds the East and Central African middleweight title, added: “Ouma is an intelligent fighter and whoever expects him to be knocked out might not even see him knocked down.”

It makes sense because while Ouma has lost 18 times—nine of which in his last nine fights—he has only been stopped four times. The first time was in 1999, the second in 2011 against Genady Golovkin, another in 2019 and the last one in 2021.

Sserunjogi also partly based his judgement on Okwiri’s last fight in June, when he was exposed before suffering a seventh round KO to Congolese Emmany Mukuna Kalombo in South Africa.

He thus missed the chance to win the vacant IBF International Super Welterweight title, which would have been his second pro title having clinched the African Boxing Union Middleweight belt in June 2019.

Sserunjogi attributed his loss to Okwiri to unpreparedness. “Without underrating my opponent’s victory, I should have done better had I prepared better. But the fight came on short notice, we were just recovering from the [covid19] lockdown, yet I needed the money. But since that loss, I have never rested and I am much better; I have always wanted a rematch. And I wish Okwiri could stay around to watch my next fight on January 14.”