Cindy Ngamba: ‘I don’t wish to go to Saudi till I hear from girls that legal guidelines have modified’ | Boxing

“I’m nonetheless deciding my nickname,” Cindy Ngamba says with a languid grin as she prepares for her debut as an expert fighter on the Royal Albert Corridor on Friday evening. Ngamba, who gained the primary Olympic medal in historical past for the Refugee Crew on the Paris Video games final yr, is a glowing character and a boxer of huge potential, so it doesn’t take her lengthy to disclose her present favorite.

“On my gumshield it says ‘One in 100 Million’ in order that’s a nickname I like,” Ngamba says. “It’s linked to the Refugee Crew as a result of I’m only one in a 100 million refugees from all over the world.”

The 26-year-old, who can not return to her residence nation of Cameroon as a result of she is homosexual, laughs as I attempt a hoop announcer’s introduction of Cindy “One in a 100 Million” Ngamba! “I prefer it. I would use it as a result of we’re particular and it’s the one nickname I’ve thought of up to now. I’m taking my time however you’ve acquired to make it relatable to you.”

Some commentators have urged that, at her greatest, Ngamba resembles a feminine model of the younger Tommy Hearns together with her gangly body and hard-hitting energy. She might be much more suited to the professional recreation and appears a future star. Requested to explain her anticipation earlier than preventing the European welterweight champion Kirstie Bavington, Ngamba says: “I’m excited for this new journey. As soon as I step within the professional ring every thing might be totally different.”

She understands that transferring into skilled boxing is akin to getting into shark-filled waters. “Doubtless. Earlier than I went to the Olympics final yr I used to be informed this by my teammates [at GB Boxing where she still trains in Sheffield]. Olympians like Karriss Artingstall, Lauren Worth, Galal Yafai, Frazer Clarke and Joshua Buatsi warned me. Everybody is aware of what skilled boxing is like.

“I’ve sat down with [promoters] and they’d promote me the world to the purpose the place I’d be like: ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ Fortunately I had people who needed one of the best for me, to guard me. Trying again now I’m like: ‘Wow, everybody within the professionals is in it for themselves. They simply see you as a payday or what they will get out of you.’

“That’s why I made a decision to show professional 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 need one of the best for me. After I had nothing, they have been those who didn’t take a look at me as somebody they might take issues from. They noticed me as this lady who has an incredible expertise. She has an incredible character and an incredible story and her purpose is to field on the Olympics. They helped me get there. In order that’s why I made a decision to stick with GB Boxing.”

Ngamba has lived in Britain for greater than 15 years, however she has but to realize citizenship on this nation. GB Boxing supported her, and educated and nurtured her, even when it was apparent Ngamba may make it to the Olympics solely as a part of the Refugee Crew.

In an identical method they are going to assist her navigate the bruising terrain {of professional} boxing – however GB Boxing can not shield her from the fact that the battle enterprise is now managed on the highest degree by Saudi Arabia. How does she really feel concerning the Saudi stranglehold on boxing?

“They actually disappoint me. It very a lot disappoints me however I believe Saudi has at all times been like that. Their legislation has at all times been very totally different in comparison with European nations. Do I believe it’s going to vary? I don’t actually suppose so. I don’t suppose I ever wish to go to Saudi till I hear from girls saying that they’ve modified their legal guidelines. However even when the legal guidelines have modified, I’ll nonetheless really feel scared for my life, or threatened for my life, if I’m going there.

“Each feminine boxer must be handled like a boxer. They need to by no means say: ‘Oh, you’re a feminine and a lesbian so we don’t need you to be a part of boxing.’ For me, being a part of the LGBTQ+ group and being a feminine boxer, there’s a excessive probability that I will be at risk if I’m going to Saudi. So I’d by no means take into consideration going to Saudi.”

Does it concern her that, as a result of elite boxing is now dominated by Saudi Arabia, alternatives for feminine fighters are severely compromised? “No, as a result of male boxers have at all times been [considered] larger in comparison with girls. However I believe the proportion of females in comparison with males has acquired higher. The promoting and promotion of feminine boxing has acquired a bit higher. However we’re not the place we wish to be. Male boxing has at all times been on the high as a result of males rule the game.

“As females we’re making an attempt to show we’re boxers too and we now have abilities, expertise, energy and all that males have. Females have it – however it’s to do with promotion and the media. They have to be praising feminine boxing a bit extra.”

Ngamba appears to be like floored after I ask her if she realises that the Albert Corridor present, the evening earlier than Worldwide Ladies’s Day, carries promoting for Riyadh Season, which promotes so many males’s fights in Saudi Arabia. “No, I didn’t know that,” she says quietly.

How does that make her really feel? “I’m misplaced for phrases proper now as a result of I didn’t know that. I suppose that they must play their energy they usually’re taking a number of the Sky Sports activities boxers overseas. However I’m staying out of it. I’m specializing in my boxing. I’m letting Rob McCracken and my group kind it out for me. It’s a really harmful sport, however you possibly can’t be intimidated by it.”

I ask Ben Shalom, the top of Boxxer, the promotional firm staging the “historic” all-women’s invoice, why Ngamba and the headline fighters Worth and Natasha Jonas have been all stunned after I talked about to them that Riyadh Season is being marketed at the side of the Albert Corridor present. The promoter pauses earlier than replying: “Riyadh Season sponsor all of our occasions. There are main adjustments occurring there they usually’ve by no means proven any signal of discrimination in opposition to anybody or any of our fighters. It’s the other. I believe they’re making an attempt to modernise their nation. If something, to have them supporting an occasion like this exhibits the adjustments that they’re making and what can occur by way of boxing.”

Pressed to elucidate the Saudis’ involvement in Friday’s promotion, Shalom says: “They’re a sponsor of the occasion identical to BetFred or Everlast. In return for the publicity that their model will get, simply as any sponsor they’ll pay a price for that publicity.”

As for Ngamba’s concern of travelling to Saudi Arabia, Shalom defends his promotional companions’ involvement in boxing: “If something it exhibits an intention to vary – I actually consider that. I’ve been visiting Saudi over the previous yr or two and was it ever someplace that, rising up, I believed I’d be going to? In all probability not. However the adjustments that they’re making an attempt to make are huge.”

Ngamba is way extra expert and proficient than Bavington, regardless of her rival having regained the European welterweight title, however will she be nervous on Friday evening? “I at all times inform myself: ‘If you happen to don’t get nervous you shouldn’t be within the ring.’ It’s the way you deal with your nerves and I do know that, no matter she’s going to convey to the desk, I’ll be capable to again it up. So I don’t actually fuss about it.

“If I didn’t really feel assured in myself, I wouldn’t have determined to show professional and to take this [non-title] battle with Bavington. She has a great deal of expertise however I again myself, regardless of when and the place. I prepare exhausting, I work exhausting. I’ve an amazing group. I hearken to my coach. I like studying, being with people who have a great deal of expertise, as a result of I be taught from them. So I do know I’ll come out on high.”

Ngamba has already chosen the music to accompany her ringwalk. “It’s the anthem of the Olympic Refugee Crew. I wish to preserve it genuine and remind everybody of who I’m and the place I began from. I’m a refugee and it helps that the music is nice. It’s even acquired a little bit of rapping and it will get the blood pumping.”

She smiles once more after I say that Friday evening can even give her a chance to point out the Saudis what they’ve been lacking whereas paying scant consideration to feminine boxers. “Oh yeah!” Ngamba says, her eyes burning with fiery ambition and resolve to spotlight her standing as a one in a 100 million feminine fighter.