Born Ready: Sadam Ali Set to Make the Most of Fighting at Madison Square Garden

Sadam Ali stood there crying. His coach had told him to throw jabs while looking at himself in the mirror. After a while, Ali’s arm felt like it was going to fall off.

But he stood there looking at himself in the mirror, jabbing and crying, and he didn’t stop. He just kept throwing punches.

“I didn’t know that when the bell rang I could stop,” Ali told Bleacher Report. “I was eight years old. So I just kept throwing them, and I guess the coach was busy walking around, so he never let me know. My left arm felt like it was going to fall off because all I was doing was throwing jabs.”

But Ali kept throwing jabs, because he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be a fighter just like his idol, Naseem Hamed.

“I was watching Prince Naseem Hamed, and he made boxing look fun. The way he came into the ring was so exciting, and even what he did in the ring was exciting. He didn’t make it look like two people just punching each other in the face. It was really entertaining to me. It was exciting and fun. I knew I wanted to do that someday.”

JOHN DUNN/Associated Press

Now a 26-year-old undefeated welterweight, Ali faces Francisco Santana at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday. HBO will air the bout live before Wladimir Klitschko’s heavyweight title defense against Bryant Jennings at 10:00 p.m. ET.

“He’s a tough fighter,” Ali said of Santana. “He’s hungry. He comes to win. But so do I. It’s going to be a great fight. I’m excited.”

Ali, a Brooklyn resident and 2008 Olympian, is exceedingly excited and thankful for the chance to show what he can do on such a big stage.

“I’m very excited. I just had a big fight on HBO. I’m focused, and I’m ready to shine and perform again.”

Ali dominated Luis Carlos Abregu in November 2014 in the co-feature of the light heavyweight title unification bout between Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev at Boardwalk Hall in New Jersey. What was supposed to be a tough fight against a rough opponent looked easy once the bell rang. Ali was just too good.

“For that fight, I knew my opponent had tremendous power, and I had to fight smart. After the fight started, I was fighting cautious and trying not to make any mistakes. After a while, everything fell into place, and I did what I had to do and won.”

Ali stopped Abregu in Round 9.

“It was huge. A lot of people didn’t know who I was. I was the underdog. A lot of people were saying I would lose. A lot of people were saying I would get knocked out. But I knew what I could do.”

While Ali carries a long history of amateur success and remains undefeated as a professional, he seems to feel as if he has naysayers in the boxing public. If they exist—and let’s be honest, there are sure to be some at this stage of his career—Ali wants to prove them wrong.

“It was important to go out there and show everybody and the people who doubted me. I have no hate for them. It is what it is. I’m supposed to prove myself to all fans, to all viewers. And that’s what I did. It was very important to me.”

HBO doesn’t give fighters like Ali co-feature spots on high-profile cards to be nice. It’s clear the executives over there believe the boxer-puncher can turn into something special. And Ali plans to make good on the potential they see in him. He said it will simply be a culmination of the hard work that began at age eight when he was throwing jabs and crying in front of a mirror.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

“As I was working, I was crying. But I wanted it so bad, I just kept going. When you want something that bad, you’re going to work hard for it. So I just cried and threw punches.”

A coach’s mistake turned into a microcosm of an excellent fighter’s entire career.

“That’s how it all started, and day by day it just got better. That’s how dreams come true. You see something. You follow it. You stick to it, and you do it!”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.