Kassim Ouma (born 12 December, 1978 Gulu, Uganda) is a Ugandan professional boxer. He held the IBF junior middleweight title from 2004 to 2005, and has challenged twice for a world middleweight title in 2006 and 2011.

Early life Born into poverty, at the age of six he was displaced by war and he ended up under the protection of the then rebel forces 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.

Amateur career 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.

Professional career 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 Uganda. Ouma later won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) Junior Middleweight world title.

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 a 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.

Ouma returned to the ring with an impressive win over undefeated fellow southpaw Sechew Powell August 5, 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.

Ouma lost the middleweight title shot against Jermain Taylor on Dec. 9, 2006. Taylor's power and well-timed clenches kept Ouma from throwing as many punches as he usually does. 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. The judges scored the fight 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113 for Taylor who was at home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

After the Taylor fight Ouma lost back to back close decisions to Saul Roman in October 2007 and Cornelius Bundrage in March 2008.

On September 25, 2010, Ouma stopped Joey Gilbert in the 6th round of their 10-round bout for the vacant NABA middleweight title at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.

Personal life While in Uganda, he was never shot despite being in the army. However, after having moved to America, he was shot twice in Florida in December 2002. According to Ouma, his father was beaten to death by the Ugandan army in retaliation for his leaving of the country."The Big Interview" at Guardian unlimitedBiograph at Ouma's website A documentary entitled Kassim the Dream was made in 2008. It was an official selection at several film festivals.

See also List of kidnappings List of solved missing person cases Ugandan Americans

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes49LossFedor MichelUD625 May 202248Loss29–17–1 Ryno LiebenbergUD826 Mar 2022 47Loss29–16–1 Ibrahima DialloRTD4 (8), 4 Dec 202146Loss29–15–1 Tony BrowneUD828 Mar 202145Loss29–14–1 Ashley TheophaneUD105 Oct 201944Loss29–13–1 Fiodor CzerkaszynTKO2 (8), 23 Mar 201943Loss29–12–1 Pavel SemjonovUD816 Nov 201842Loss29–11–1 Ilias EssaoudiUD83 Dec 201741Loss29–10–1 Kamil SzeremetaUD1020 Aug 201640Win29–9–1 Adam KatumwaTKO6 (8)22 Apr 201639Loss28–9–1 Igor SelivanovUD829 Nov 201538Win28–8–1 Rahman Mustafa YusubovUD611 Dec 201337Loss27–8–1 Gennady GolovkinTKO10 (12), 17 Jun 201136Win27–7–1 Joey GilbertTKO6 (10), 25 Sep 201035Loss26–7–1 Vanes MartirosyanUD1016 Jan 201034Loss26–6–1 Gabriel RosadoSD1024 Apr 200933Win26–5–1 Martinus ClayTKO6 (10), 4 Oct 200832Loss25–5–1 Cornelius BundrageUD1028 Mar 200831Loss25–4–1 Saúl RománSD102 Nov 200730Loss25–3–1 Jermain TaylorUD129 Dec 200629Win25–2–1 Sechew PowellUD105 Aug 200628Win24–2–1 Marco Antonio RubioSD126 May 200627Win23–2–1 Francisco Antonio MoraTKO8 (12), 27 Jan 200626Win22–2–1 Alfredo CuevasRTD4 (10), 13 Oct 200525Loss21–2–1 Roman KarmazinUD1214 Jul 200524Win21–1–1 Kofi JantuahUD1229 Jan 200523Win20–1–1 Verno PhillipsUD122 Oct 200422Win19–1–1 Juan Carlos CandeloTKO10 (12), 3 Jan 200421Win18–1–1 Carlos BojorquezTKO8 (10), 22 Aug 200320Win17–1–1 Ángel Hernández1230 May 20031916–1–1 Darrell WoodsTKO11 (12), 4 Oct 200218Win16–1–1Jason PapillionRTD8 (12), 10 May 200217Win15–1–1Michael LermaUD1015 Feb 200216Win14–1–1Pedro OrtegaRTD4 (10), 13 Dec 200115Win13–1–1Verno PhillipsUD1029 Jun 200114Win12–1–1Tony MarshallUD1029 Jun 200113Draw11–1–1James Coker2 (12), 26 Apr 200112Win11–1Quvonchbek Toygonbayev613 Oct 200011Win10–1Alex Bunema4 (8), 4 May 200010Loss9–1Agustin SilvaTKO1 (4)20 Nov 19999Win9–0Angel VillegasTKO8 (8)18 Jun 19998Win8–0Emiliano Valdez630 Jan 19997Win7–0Victor RamosTKO5 (12), 15 Jan 19996Win6–0Jerry SmithTKO3 (8), 20 Nov 19985Win5–0Rodney WestonKO1 (6), 7 Nov 19984Win4–0Renan ReyesKO1 (6), 16 Oct 19983Win3–0Joseph Ragusa1 (4), 12 Sep 19982Win2–0Alton MadisonTKO3 (4), 27 Jul 19981Win1–0Napoleon Middlebrooks1 (4), 10 Jul 1998

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