Cindy Ngamba has spoken out against the increasing grip Saudi Arabia wields over boxing as she prepares to make her professional debut this week.
The 26-year-old won a historic first medal for the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris last summer and, in her first fight as a pro, will take on the European welterweight champion Kirstie Bavington on Friday 7 March.
Ngamba, who cannot return to her native Cameroon because she is gay, has been a rare voice of dissent within boxing on the subject of Saudi involvement in the sport.
“It very much disappoints me but I think Saudi has always been like that,” she said in an interview with The Guardian. “I don’t think I ever want to go to Saudi until I hear from women saying that they’ve changed their laws. But even if the laws have changed, I will still feel scared for my life, or threatened for my life, if I go there.”
Her debut bout as a professional forms part of an historic all-female card at the Royal Albert Hall this week. Ngamba felt that progress has been made in elevating the profile of women’s boxing, but there is still some way to go, and she called on the media to pay more attention to women in the sport.
“I think the percentage of females compared to men has got better,” she said. “The advertising and promotion of female boxing has got a bit better, but we’re not where we want to be.
“Male boxing has always been at the top because men rule the sport. As females we’re trying to prove we are boxers too and we have skills, talent, power and all that men have.”
Ngamba, who has lived in the UK since she was a child but has been unable to gain citizenship, trains with the GB squad in Sheffield. Without documentation she had to compete for the Olympic Refugee Team last summer and ultimately won bronze in the 75kg category.
She will walk out on Friday to the team’s anthem, which remains important to her. “I want to keep it authentic and remind everyone of who I am and where I started from,” she said.
She is turning professional with the support of GB Boxing and their new Podium Pro venture, which means that she will continue to work with coach and GB Boxing’s Performance Director Rob McCracken, and train with the people she continues to call her teammates. One of those is Lauren Price, who headlines Friday’s card against Natasha Jonas.
Ngamba has previously heaped praise on GB Boxing for their support of her, especially in the cut-throat world of professional boxing.
“They want the best for me,” she said. “When I had nothing, they were the ones who didn’t look at me as someone they could take things from. They saw me as this girl who has an amazing talent.”
