Kassim Ouma

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Kassim Ouma
Real name	Kassim Ouma
Nickname	The Dream
Weight	Light Middleweight
Nationality	Ugandan
Birth date	December 12, 1978
Birth place	Kampala, Uganda
Style	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	29
Wins	24
Wins by KO	15
Losses	3
Draws	1
No contests	1

Kassim Ouma (born December 12, 1978) is a Ugandan boxer. Born into poverty, at the age of six he was kidnapped and forced to join the national resistance army and consequently did not see his family for five years. Ouma is the 7th of 13 children, which include 7 brothers and 5 sisters. Only 4 brothers are still alive.

Upon leaving the army, Ouma started boxing and amassed an amateur record of 62 wins and 3 losses. He made the Ugandan national boxing team and was selected to fight at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, but did not attend due to financial difficulties. On a Ugandan national amateur team trip to the United States, Ouma decided to stay to undertake a career as a professional boxer to support his family in Uganada. Ouma won the International Boxing Federation (IBF), world title.

Ironically, while in Uganda. he was never shot despite being in the army, but when he moved to America, he was shot twice in Florida on December 2002.

His father was beaten to death by the Ugandan Army as punishment for Ouma leaving Uganda. His family lives under constant threats in the African country. The Ouma dream is to provide a better life for his family outside of Uganda.

Ouma is a former champion and top-level contender in the Light Middleweight division. He has quality wins against Jason Papillion, Juan Carlos Candelo, and Verno Phillips, his second win against whom earned him the IBF Light Middleweight title. Ouma successfully defended his championship with a twelve round unanimous decision against Kofi Jantuah of Ghana. Ouma later lost this title in an unanimous decision defeat against Roman Karmazin, a bout in which Ouma was put to the canvas twice. It was only the second defeat of his career.

Since the Karmazin bout, Ouma has remained active in the Light Middleweight division, earning three wins, two by knockout. On May 6, 2006 Ouma defeated Marco Antonio Rubio by split decision despite being knocked down in the first round.

Kassim returned to the ring with an impressive win over undefeated Sechew Powell August 5th, 2006. Powell is from Brooklyn, NY and the fight took place at the Theatre of Madison Square Garden. The official scorecards were 90-100, 93-97, and 94-96 all in favor of Kassim Ouma by unanimous decision.

Kassim lost the middleweight title shot against Jermain Taylor on Dec. 9th 2006. Taylor's power and well-timed clenches kept Ouma from throwing as many punches as he is used to. Despite absorbing a large number of extremely hard shots, Ouma did not go down. The fight went the full 12 rounds, and Ouma lost by unanimous decision. Open scoring was used during the bout. The judges scored the fight 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113 for Taylor who was at home in Little Rock, Arkansas.