Ramla Ali claims first world title after controversial split decision over Mikiah Kreps
The 36-year-old British-Somali fighter edged her former sparring partner in Texas to collect the vacant IBO and WBF junior featherweight belts, in a result that drew immediate criticism.
By Larissa Bell ·
British-Somali boxer Ramla Ali won the first world title of her career on Sunday, defeating American Mikiah Kreps by a disputed split decision in Arlington, Texas, to take the vacant IBO and WBF junior featherweight belts.
The 36-year-old prevailed at the end of a tense 10-round contest between two former sparring partners, and the pair closed the night with a display of mutual respect. After being declared the winner, Ali stopped her opponent from leaving the ring so she could address her directly. "Mikiah, I want to share this victory with you because you pushed me for 10 rounds," an emotional Ali said. "I kept saying I'm so tired because your work rate was next level. I don't know how I kept up, so thank you for being such a great boxer."
Kreps, a 30-year-old from Niagara Falls, responded in kind as the fighters put an arm around each other. "I respect you," she said.
The judging quickly became the story. Ali put Kreps on the canvas in round three, but official punch statistics showed Kreps outlanding her by 115 blows to 78, with the American also comfortably ahead in the power shot count. One judge scored the bout 98-91 for Kreps, while the other two saw it for Ali, 97-92 and 96-93.
Veteran promoter Lou Di Bella was among those angered by the verdict, writing on social media: "Mikiah Kreps won that fight and it wasn't even close. Stevie Wonder could see that."
Ali, who dropped to her knees when the scores were announced, is unlikely to be shaken by the outside noise given the path she has travelled. Her family fled Somalia's civil war and settled in London in 1992, and she picked up boxing as a teenager in East London. She went on to become the first Muslim woman to win an English amateur title and, at Tokyo 2020, the first Somali boxer to compete at the Olympic Games, representing the country of her birth.
Her journey has now inspired a film, In the Shadows, starring Top Boy actor Jasmine Jobson. Away from the ring, Ali has also built a public profile as a model and a UNICEF ambassador.
The victory arrived five months after the death of her father, and Ali said she had stayed up all night before the fight wishing he could have been there to watch her. "My father passed away in May, so I was really emotional," she told All The Smoke Boxing afterward. "Every round, I kept going to my corner to tell my coach I couldn't do it any more because I was physically exhausted. I boxed through my skin and I'm glad I got the victory."
Fighting back tears inside the ring, she added: "I can't put into words what this means to me and what this means to all of Somalia. I've hopefully inspired so many young girls and boys out there to dream big and that's all I've ever wanted to do."
