BBN Speaks to Paulus “Ali” Nuumbembe: The Pride of Namibia and Britain by Terry Dooley Feb 11th 2006

Sometimes you need to put things into perspective especially in boxing. Fighters talk about “Going to war” but you are about to meet a fighter who grew up in a war zone. We can all complain that we had it rough but Ali “The Silent Assassin” Nuumbembe (14-1-1, 6 KO's) had it rough and tough. Born into the struggle for freedom to bring his native Namibia away from South African rule Ali grew up in conditions that we can only have nightmares about. Yet it is testament to his fighting spirit that at the tender age of 27 Ali finds himself uprooted from his family and beloved Namibia in order to pursue the boxer's dream of World Champion status. Ali was a participant in the Commonwealth Games here in Manchester in 2002 but before the games the Namibian team lost their luggage and a boxing fan called Richard Parker stepped in and replaced their kit. When Ali expressed an interest in turning pro over here in the UK Chad went a step further and helped Ali pursue his dream. Ali now lives in a luxury caravan behind Chad's pub The Beehive in the picturesque hills of Glossop. Ali and ‘Chad love boxing and are on the road to a world-title together. I asked Ali to tell me about Namibia a country torn apart by conflict since 1966 when SWAPO (The Marxist South West-Africa People's Organization) guerrilla forces began a war of independence against the occupying South African regime: “Life in Namibia since early in the 1960's was not that easy as we were fighting for independence. War was going on and it was like living in a battlefield, so many get killed and you are not allowed to walk at night past six o'clock. For us kids it was scary to live in that situation with soldiers everywhere in uniform and sometimes they would beat us up or kidnap people so yes it was hard growing up. Soldiers came to schools and threatened kids. There was this one time they came to our school when I was a student and started asking where SWAPO soldiers was and beating people up and so they hit me in the stomach with a rifle to scare me and they started asking me questions [about SWAPO].” It must have been a nightmarish experience for Ali, or sadly maybe he was immune to it by then, so I asked him if it was hard to keep silent under this type of pressure: “No. You don't tell them anything because once you tell them they will suspect your whole family. If you say something they will go to your house where you have your brothers, your mom and they will beat them up to get information.” During the war most of the Owambo region was a battlefield. Ali is part of the Owambo people so he was living in this battlefield too: “That was the most affected area. My family and relatives were affected. Like my father . . . he worked but had to go to prison every weekend. He had one house at the town and one at the village. He stayed in the town house whilst he was working then would come to the village and he had a connection with SWAPO soldiers during the weekend so there was this time when every Friday he went to the prison for the weekend and worked all week. This went on for a year and they ended up taking him to prison for five years and it was a small cell and Daddy said he could not stand. When he got out he was in and out of hospital and in the end he had to have his leg cut off. My aim is to make a little money to support my family and get a house for my mom; she does not work and needs my support; that is why I am here.” Not surprisingly Ali later joined the Namibian Defense Force (NDF) so I asked him if he joined with thoughts of revenge in his mind: “No. I joined the army mostly because of sport. I started boxing when I was at school and in 1995 they had this advertisement saying that the army wanted sports people to join. So I could do sport at the same time as soldiering.” Evidently Ali is a proud Namibian and I showed him a recent article on Namibia.net praising his decision not to take UK citizenship, surely this must make him proud: “I am so proud to represent my country and I had no need to do that [take a British passport], a lot of my family suffered for Namibia and a lot are dead so this is not a time to turn around and say I am British. My heart would not let me do that. Namibia is good now and all people get along together. You can go to Namibia now and it is a good country. When I retire I will go back and help the young boxers as the boxing sport is very small there now with less than 20 pro boxers in the whole country and 1 pro gym. It would be good for me to go back and help the youngsters of Namibia.” One should not understate the sacrifice Ali has made by turning down British citizenship as it makes him less attractive to sponsors and Ali will not claim British benefits as he states that he is there to work as a boxer: “At this very stage you can only make money once you have a title so for now things are hard and I'm looking for sponsors. If any one would like to sponsor me I'd really appreciate that.” Ali is a big draw here though and is a cult hero in the traditionalist area of Glossop where his fan base is impressive: “People helped me a lot by coming to support me, it is the one thing I didn't expect as I thought it would be difficult outside my country but the people in this town support me for what I am and it is very good because you have many British boxers and they take time out to support me. It is good to also know that the people of Namibia are supporting me, it is very, very good.” Ali had always been into fighting games so I asked him about the Namibian slapping game of Onghandeka: “It is a game that we do in Namibia it is a traditional game. People do it at night, when young people are out at night even during the wartime we'd take our chances to go out at night and play Onghandeka whilst the girls danced and talked. I used to love that game very much. I believe that from that game I fell in love with fighting sports. When I moved to town to live with my mother the kids in town only played football and . . . so I started boxing.” Ali is really called Paulus Nuumbembe so most boxing fans can imagine where he got the “Ali” tag: “Muhammad Ali, yes. When I first went boxing training I used to watch Ali on telly and started dancing with the Ali shuffle. I was no good with my hands but good with my legs so the guys called me Ali.” Ali rose fast and had a decorated amateur career, in Namibia he was soon national Champion, a feat he replicated 8 times: “I love boxing and in 1993 I won the national regional Championships when we had a coach from Cuba and for me to work with a Cuban coach helped me a lot. Then in 1995 I won the national Championship and won it from then until I was professional.” Only six men have represented Namibia as Olympic boxers so I asked Ali what that felt like: “Harry Simon was the first in 1992 and in 2000 it was me. We had two guys again in Greece.” Was Ali tempted to wait until Greece to try and go further in the Games: “No. If I was not going to turn professional after the Commonwealth Games it would never happen. When I started boxing I just wanted to fight . . . I decided that I had got to the point where I was national Champion for eight years and there were kids coming up in my division and I was blocking them, I wanted to give them kids a chance and decided to go professional. In Namibia we never had a pro boxer, Simon turned pro in South Africa . . . I met Chad and he helped me turn pro.” What was that Commonwealth win like: “In those games I wanted a gold medal but ended up getting a bronze and appreciated that, the first Namibian medal in boxing in the Commonwealth Games. Then I turned pro and the army did not support me at first. I decided to quit and handed in my resignation form but they gave me the chance to see how things would go, things went well and they then decided to give me time to fulfil my dreams. I miss the amateur teams and visiting different countries, I miss the guys [on the team]. My most memorable amateur fight? I fought a guy in Egypt to get my ticket to Sydney and it was a great moment for me as I'd always wanted to go to the Olympic Games.” I asked Ali if he had learned many lessons from his old coach Joseph Bernard: “He was a good boxer and helped me a lot by giving me the basic training in boxing.” Ali turned pro thanks to the help and support of the NDF, the Namibian people, his adopted British community and the man he says is like an adopted father to him Chad Parker, was it a difficult transition: “I was a bit nervous but I knew I'd win my first fight and I expected to stop him as well but I was so nervous I ended up beating him [Dai Bando] on points.” Ali won 9 consecutive fights then went back to Namibia to fight Bethuel Ushona at short notice, at the time Bob Shannon told me that Ali was like the visiting fighter and he lost a controversial decision: “I won that fight! One judge gave me the fight, the other gave it to the other guy and those two were South African judges but the Namibian guy never gave me any rounds. To have that points difference tells the whole story really. It was very disappointing to lose in front of my people as I felt I let them down but that is boxing and I suffered as a result. I would like a rematch but his people do not want it. I will fight him in Namibia or here. My military superiors did not believe I had lost the fight and they came to me and told me that they would help me by giving me as much time as I wanted to make it as a professional boxer.” It is often the case in boxing that triumph follows disappointment and Ali came in a late notice to give David Barnes a stirring fight that resulted in a draw, before the fight Barnes had been a ridiculous 33 – 1 favourite but I had seen Ali train and knew he would surprise a few people. When the draw was announced Ali was upset not to win and Barnes stormed out of the ring: “I knew that I had the skill and there was no way he was going to stop me. I knew that I had a great chance to win and I was lucky to be given that fight and that fight put me back on track to bounce back. I knew what to expect as I'd studied his fights and sparred with him, I thought it would be tough to go twelve rounds with the British Champion. I never expected an easy fight and went into it that way. I knew I did not lose that fight. I did not expect them to say that I had lost. I knew I had won it or they'd make it a draw. I was a little disappointed but took it on four days notice and got a draw. I would like a rematch and people would like to see it again.” Chad had told me that when weighing in for the Ali fight the talented Barnes had been talking about a fight with Joshua Okine for The Commonwealth Title and still had the fight shortly after his gruelling bout with Ali. Barnes was shockingly KO'd by Opine: “He had a tough fight with me then went onto Joshua so it took a lot out of him.” Since the Barnes fight Ali has been getting more KO's so he had decided to let his fists settle the fights: “After Barnes I found out that my power was a little bit lacking. After that fight I went back to Bob Shannon and worked on my power and did some weights and things. My next three fights after that my power was there and I showed it off.” He has had some compliments from opponents so how does that feel: “It is nice to get compliments. They are tough lads as well and I respect that. My first fights went the distance and I had stayed a long time in the amateurs, I was addicted to the amateur style and needed more power. I fought some guys with lots of fights early and they had some defensive skills and knew how to survive but I beat them up.” Ali is a voracious trainer so I asked if he has many weight fluctuations: “I don't put much weight on as I train hard. I stay near the weight limit.” Does anything make him nervous when he gets in the ring: “The people who turn up for the fight make me a bit nervous when I'm in the ring because in Namibia not a lot of people go to boxing and here you get thousands of people. The hardest part about being a boxer? When you don't know who to fight next, waiting then being told you'll fight someone but not knowing who. Or if they pull out.” Ali loves to train so he and Bob Shannon must be a match made in heaven: “I've never met anyone like Bob; I've never seen somebody like him. He believes in hard work and so do I, he pushes me and I push myself. He is one of the best trainers in the world.” Ali is probably punching as fast as ever and that itself generates power: “I was always fast and like to improve my punching power as a professional.” He also has a wish when it comes to fighting a dream opponent: “It would be Floyd Mayweather because he is the best in the world and I like his fighting, he has got skills and is fast.” As the interview wound down Ali spoke about his love for football and how he supports Namibian teams: “Oshakati City is my home team” as well as the local Glossop side, a sure sign that he is integrated into this community. He also spoke of his eclectic musical taste but as before, when he told me about his loyalty to his country, he stressed that he loves African music above all things: “I like Rumba music but all music too. You name it but mostly African music.” He is also a Ricky Hatton fan: “He is a good lad, down to earth and he works hard. I like Andy Morris too, when you said he thinks I'm fast that is a big compliment to me as he is a featherweight. We work hard with Bob and Andy is a great boxer, one day me and Andy will make it for Bob's gym Fighting Fit.”

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Thankyou Feb 12th 2006, 00:23:44 by robin Great interview Terry - thankyou. I think it gives a very fair picture of the struggle Ali has had to get where he is now.