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Is Kassim Just Dreaming?
WED December 6 BRIAN BLAKE - This Saturday night at the Alltel Arena in Little Rock HBO Championship Boxing will televise the fight between middleweight champion Jermain ‘Bad Intentions’ Taylor as he attempts to defend his title against challenger Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma.
Most experts don’t see this as much of a contest, and it’s not without good reason. Just last year Ouma dropped a bout to Roman Karmazin. Not to take anything away from Karmazin and his performance, but the fact of the matter is…he’s no Jermain Taylor.
While the odds may be against Ouma leading up to this fight it’s safe to say that Kassim has dealt with far greater wars than his bout against the middleweight champion of the world. And when I say that, I mean it literally.
At the age of six he was drafted into a guerrilla Ugandan army and separated from his family for five years. When he wasn’t a soldier on the frontlines he was an amateur boxer. An amateur boxer who managed to win 62 fights. While still an amateur on the Ugandan national boxing team Kassim traveled to America and defected from his native land of Uganda and was later granted political asylum.
Growing up at the age of six as a soldier it can only be viewed as ironic that Ouma was shot for the first time while leaving a Florida nightclub in 2002.
Two years later Ouma would find himself fighting for the IBF jr. middleweight title against Verno Phillips, and at the end of the night find himself victorious.
Kassim only got to defend that title one time, which was against Kofi Jantuah.
Now back to Roman Karmazin.
Karmazin was able to score a unanimous decision victory over Ouma almost a year and a half ago. Not only did Roman put up a win but also put Ouma on the canvas twice during the bout.
As I stated before Karmazin is no Taylor. But then again Ouma is no Winky Wright either. When Jermain Taylor took on Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright earlier in the year he faced an opponent that boasted a tight defense yet a limited offense. Wright can be viewed as a complete opposite from Ouma who boasts a non stop offense as opposed to his limited defense.
While Kassim walks into the ring as the smaller, less technical and acclaimed fighter it doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t have a chance. Styles make fights and we will all witness the outcome on Saturday night.
Come Sunday morning Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma will either wake up with the title of world middleweight champion or he’ll wake up with one helluva headache. Then again, maybe he’ll wake up with both.
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Brian Blake can be reached at: BBlake@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions.
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