Somali-born boxer Ramla Ali fights Mikiah Kreps for two world titles in Texas
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The gist
Ramla Ali faces unbeaten Mikiah Kreps for the vacant IBF and WBO super-bantamweight titles in Arlington, Texas.
A win would make the refugee-turned-Olympian a world champion as her biopic opens.
Background
Ramla Ali is a boxer who became the first Somali woman to compete in Olympic boxing; she fled Somalia as a child during the civil war, grew up in London and also works as a model. She hid her boxing ambitions from her traditional family for years and founded The Sisters Club, a non-profit offering free sports lessons to women of all races and religions. She was named one of TIME Magazine's Women of the Year in March 2023. The fight comes as a biopic of her life, "In the Shadows," with British actress Jasmine Jobson playing Ali, opens in select theaters.
How it unfolded
- Jun 2023Ali needs a concussion check after Julissa Alejandra Guzmán knocks her out, her first professional loss; she avenges it four months later.
- Jul 2024Jasmine Jobson takes the lead role in "In the Shadows" after Letitia Wright drops out a month before shooting, pushing production back two weeks.
- Sep 2024Final week of shooting for "In the Shadows" in Malindi, Kenya, recreating Ali's early childhood in Somalia.
- Aug 16, 2025Ali beats Brazil's Lila Furtado on points over eight rounds on the New York undercard.
- Oct 1, 2026ITV reports "In the Shadows" will premiere at the London Film Festival on October 9, with Jasmine Jobson playing Ali.
- Oct 13, 2026MVP announces a revised card after Ellie Scotney withdraws with an injury; the scheduled Tiara Brown–Scotney bout is no longer listed.
- Nov 4, 2026ESPN and boxingnews.com report on how the biopic was made; the film opened in select theaters this month.
- Nov 7, 2026Ali and Mikiah Kreps weigh in ahead of their super-bantamweight world championship bout in Arlington, Texas.
- Nov 8, 2026Ali faces Mikiah Kreps for the vacant IBF and WBO super-bantamweight titles at College Park Center in Arlington on the MVPW-07 card.
Key terms
- IBF
- One of four major organizations that sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the WBA, WBC and WBO.
- WBO
- A sanctioning body for professional boxing, one of the four major world championship organizations.
- super-bantamweight
- A professional boxing weight class contested between 118 and 122 pounds, also called junior featherweight.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Bulls
- Ali says she has to "embrace and enjoy" the run-up and that becoming world champion "would be something incredible to achieve alongside everything else," giving hope to thousands of people in Somalia.
- Caution
- Ali says her approach is to "concentrate on the one in front of you, win it and then think about everything else after."
- Analysts
- WBC super-bantamweight champion Skye Nicolson, fighting Miyo Yoshida on the same bill, says she sees "an opportunity here to unify the division at 122lbs" and that the Ali–Kreps winner will be her main focus.
Still unverified
Letitia Wright dropped out of the lead role in "In the Shadows" a month before shooting started for unknown reasons; Wright declined comment through her publicist.