“Here we go, this story again,” 23-year-old Sadam Ali said as he rolled his eyes at his father, Mahmoud Ali. On a recent day, the two were seated behind the counter at their Bay Ridge boxing gym.
“He was like a girl at home,” the Yemen native said, describing his Brooklyn-born son as a young child growing up in Canarsie. “He was the only boy in the house amongst my nieces and everybody was girls, so he started playing girl games and I said, ‘I gotta get you out. So I took him out.’”
Mahmoud Ali took his son out to the gym, first to learn karate at four-years-old, and then to start boxing at eight-years-old. Sadam Ali grew up watching boxing and gained much inspiration from his idol, Yemeni-British boxer Prince Naseem Hamed. “It’s amazing, just the way he comes in the ring, the way he fights is amazing,” he said. “Me seeing that, I was interested in boxing.”
Fifteen years later, Sadam Ali is a world-famous boxer. At 19-years-old, he won the 2008 Olympic Trials in Houston, which made him the first boxer from New York City to do so since Riddick Bowe in 1988, as well as the first Arab-American to ever represent the United States in the Olympics. Though Ali lost his opening Olympic match against Georgian Popescu of Romania, he is proud of the path he has paved for future New York boxers.
“That’s one of my greatest accomplishments,” Ali said, his eyes lighting up. “Making history. Doing that is amazing. It just shows that another Arab-American can do the same thing, what I did.”
“It doesn’t matter what race,” he continued, his voice getting louder. “Every race should represent the United States in the Olympics.”
In this year’s Olympics, Sadam Ali is an intensely interested fan. On the morning of July 30 in London, another young boxer from New York City who was inspired by Sadam fought his opening match. Twenty-one-year-old Marcus Browne, a Staten Island native and three-time Daily News Golden Gloves champion, represented the United States in the light heavyweight bracket. Like Ali, Browne lost his first fight, dropping a 13-11 decision to Australia’s Damien Hooper. In a subsequent Twitter post to his fans, he wrote, “Came up short didn’t listen to the coaches & I paid for it, just a bump in the road on this journey GOD has me on!!”
Though they come from different communities and competed in different weight classes—the much smaller Ali competed as a lightweight—the boxers know each other, and Browne viewed Ali as a ring role model.
“I met Sadam when I was 14 at the Starrett City Boxing Gym and have seen him at various boxing events since then,” Brown said in an e-mail sent while he was training in the Olympic village. “Seeing someone that I know, from New York City, go to the Olympics, showed me that it was possible for me to make it here, too.”
“I’m rooting for Marcus Brown for sure,” explained Ali two weeks ago. “He’s looked up to me because of me being first to make the Olympics since 1988, and it gave him the push. As soon as I did it, he told me, ‘I just want to thank you for doing what you did. You showed me that I can do it.’
Sadam Ali’s experience in 2008 has given him a heightened appreciation for what Browne has experienced.
In 2008, he was not even considered the favorite in the Olympic Trials.
“They wasn’t expecting me to win,” he said, “but I just blew everybody out of the park because I was so focused. My dad was always there, he make sure I stayed in the gym, make sure I stayed out of the street, stayed in school.” He paused, looked over to his father, and added, “So I was a real good kid.”
In similar fashion, Ali encouraged Brown, and urged him to stay focused: “I told him, ‘Yeah I know you can do it,’ because I know how he fights. I told him to stay in the gym and he did.”
Ali is referring to Browne’s history as a young street tough in Staten Island. Unlike Ali, who credits his father for keeping him off the streets and in the gym, Browne’s entrance into boxing was a lifestyle change.
Browne began boxing at 13-years-old when he followed his friend, N’Wachi Hartley, to the gym. Hartley died young in 2008 when he was hit by a car on his way to the gym and Browne has remained in the gym since.
“Browne will be fine,” said Ali, after learning of his Olympic loss on Monday morning. “I was really disappointed after losing the first fight [in 2008] because I beat a lot of the guys in my weight class that was competing in the Olympics,” he explained. “I felt they didn’t score my fight they way they should have and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happened to Browne.”
Ali himself can no longer compete in the Olympics, because boxing, unlike other Olympic sports, requires competitors to be amateur boxers. Instead, in 2009, Ali chose to go professional to further his career, and is currently a free agent, meaning he is not signed to any teams or agents. He started his own promotions company to stay busy, and remains undefeated in his 15 fights since the Olympics.
“I did the best you can do as an amateur, and that is making the Olympics,” he explained. “I didn’t like the judging and the way the scoring system will change every duel, so I decided to turn pro.”
The focus he cultivated physically spills over into his professional attitude. “When you’re not signed with anybody, sometimes you can’t get fights,” he explained. “I don’t want to depend on somebody else to give me a chance. I want to make my own chance.”
Ali and his father also opened their own boxing gym two years ago. It is located on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, and is frequented by young and teenage boys and even a few girls. “They’re all ages, but more are younger, like 9, 10, 11, 12,” Sadam Ali explained. “They’re running around all over the place driving me crazy.”
Most of the young people who train at the gym are Arab-Americans, but there are also a number of Hispanic fighters, and some Russians, too. The mix reflects the immigrant demography of Bay Ridge and southwest Brooklyn.
Ali plans to continue professionally boxing until his early thirties. After that, he said, he hopes to become a commentator or an actor.
“I might be in a movie, you never know,” he hinted. “I might be a boxer coming up in a movie. Someone might come and get me, give me a gig or something.”
For Browne, the future is unknown. He may too go professional, and follow in the footsteps of fellow NYC boxer, Ali.
“The last boxing Olympian out of New York was in 1988,” added Ali, “so me and Browne already made a change.”
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