3 hours ago
1
“I’m still deciding my nickname,” Cindy Ngamba says with a languid grin as she prepares for her debut as a professional fighter at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night. Ngamba, who won the first Olympic medal in history for the Refugee Team at the Paris Games last year, is a sparkling personality and a boxer of vast potential, so it does not take her long to reveal her current favourite.
“On my gumshield it says ‘One in 100 Million’ so that’s a nickname I like,” Ngamba says. “It’s linked to the Refugee Team because I am just one in a 100 million refugees from around the world.”
The 26-year-old, who cannot return to her home country of Cameroon because she is gay, laughs as I try a ring announcer’s introduction of Cindy “One in a 100 Million” Ngamba! “I like it. I might use it because we are special and it’s the only nickname I’ve thought about so far. I’m taking my time but you’ve got to make it relatable to you.”
Some commentators have suggested that, at her best, Ngamba resembles a female version of the young Tommy Hearns with her gangly frame and hard-hitting power. She will be even more suited to the pro game and looks a future star. Asked to describe her anticipation before fighting the European welterweight champion Kirstie Bavington, Ngamba says: “I’m excited for this new journey. Once I step in the pro ring everything will be different.”
She understands that moving into professional boxing is akin to entering shark-filled waters. “Without doubt. Before I went to the Olympics last year I was told this by my teammates [at GB Boxing where she still trains in Sheffield]. Olympians like Karriss Artingstall, Lauren Price, Galal Yafai, Frazer Clarke and Joshua Buatsi warned me. Everyone knows what professional boxing is like.
“I’ve sat down with [promoters] and they would sell me the world to the point where I’d be like: ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ Luckily I had people that wanted the best for me, to protect me. Looking back now I’m like: ‘Wow, everyone in the pros is in it for themselves. They just see you as a payday or what they can get out of you.’
“That’s why I decided to turn pro with GB Boxing [she is still trained by her amateur coach, Rob McCracken, who has vast experience of the pro ranks, and supported by the new Podium2Pro venture run by the British boxing Olympic programme]. They want the best for me. When I had nothing, they were the ones who didn’t look at me as someone they could take things from. They saw me as this girl who has an amazing talent. She has an amazing personality and an amazing story and her goal is to box at the Olympics. They helped me get there. So that’s why I decided to stay with GB Boxing.”
Ngamba has lived in Britain for more than 15 years, but she has yet to gain citizenship in this country. GB Boxing supported her, and trained and nurtured her, even when it was obvious Ngamba could make it to the Olympics only as part of the Refugee Team.
In a similar way they will help her navigate the bruising terrain of professional boxing – but GB Boxing cannot protect her from the reality that the fight business is now controlled at the highest level by Saudi Arabia. How does she feel about the Saudi stranglehold on boxing?
“They really disappoint me. It very much disappoints me but I think Saudi has always been like that. Their law has always been very different compared to European countries. Do I think it’s going to change? I don’t really think so. I don’t think I ever want to go to Saudi until I hear from women saying that they’ve changed their laws. But even if the laws have changed, I will still feel scared for my life, or threatened for my life, if I go there.
“Every female boxer should be treated like a boxer. They should never say: ‘Oh, you’re a female and a lesbian so we don’t want you to be part of boxing.’ For me, being part of the LGBTQ+ community and being a female boxer, there’s a high chance that I can be in danger if I go to Saudi. So I would never think about going to Saudi.”
Does it concern her that, because elite boxing is now dominated by Saudi Arabia, opportunities for female fighters are severely compromised? “No, because male boxers have always been [considered] higher compared to women. But I think the percentage of females compared to men has got better. The advertising and promotion of female boxing has got a bit better. But we’re not where we want to be. Male boxing has always been at the top because men rule the sport.
“As females we’re trying to prove we are boxers too and we have skills, talent, power and all that men have. Females have it – but it’s to do with promotion and the media. They need to be praising female boxing a bit more.”
Ngamba looks floored when I ask her if she realises that the Albert Hall show, the night before International Women’s Day, carries advertising for Riyadh Season, which promotes so many men’s fights in Saudi Arabia. “No, I did not know that,” she says quietly.
after newsletter promotion
How does that make her feel? “I’m lost for words right now because I did not know that. I guess that they have to play their power and they’re taking some of the Sky Sports boxers abroad. But I’m staying out of it. I’m focusing on my boxing. I’m letting Rob McCracken and my team sort it out for me. It’s a very dangerous sport, but you can’t be intimidated by it.”
I ask Ben Shalom, the head of Boxxer, the promotional company staging the “historic” all-women’s bill, why Ngamba and the headline fighters Price and Natasha Jonas were all surprised when I mentioned to them that Riyadh Season is being advertised in conjunction with the Albert Hall show. The promoter pauses before replying: “Riyadh Season sponsor all of our events. There are major changes going on there and they’ve never shown any sign of discrimination against anyone or any of our fighters. It’s the opposite. I think they are trying to modernise their country. If anything, to have them supporting an event like this shows the changes that they are making and what can happen through boxing.”
Pressed to explain the Saudis’ involvement in Friday’s promotion, Shalom says: “They’re a sponsor of the event just like BetFred or Everlast. In return for the exposure that their brand will get, just as any sponsor they’ll pay a fee for that exposure.”
As for Ngamba’s fear of travelling to Saudi Arabia, Shalom defends his promotional partners’ involvement in boxing: “If anything it shows an intention to change – I truly believe that. I’ve been visiting Saudi over the past year or two and was it ever somewhere that, growing up, I thought I would be going to? Probably not. But the changes that they are trying to make are vast.”
Ngamba is far more skilled and talented than Bavington, despite her rival having regained the European welterweight title, but will she be nervous on Friday night? “I always tell myself: ‘If you don’t get nervous you shouldn’t be in the ring.’ It’s how you handle your nerves and I know that, whatever she’s going to bring to the table, I’ll be able to back it up. So I don’t really fuss about it.
“If I didn’t feel confident in myself, I wouldn’t have decided to turn pro and to take this [non-title] fight with Bavington. She has loads of experience but I back myself, no matter when and where. I train hard, I work hard. I have a great team. I listen to my coach. I love learning, being with people that have loads of experience, because I learn from them. So I know I will come out on top.”
Ngamba has already chosen the music to accompany her ringwalk. “It’s the anthem of the Olympic Refugee Team. I want to keep it authentic and remind everyone of who I am and where I started from. I am a refugee and it helps that the music is good. It’s even got a bit of rapping and it gets the blood pumping.”
She smiles again when I say that Friday night will also give her an opportunity to show the Saudis what they have been missing while paying scant attention to female boxers. “Oh yeah!” Ngamba says, her eyes burning with fiery ambition and resolve to highlight her status as a one in a 100 million female fighter.
