Uganda: Doctors Tell Ouma to Take Sabbatical

James Ssekandi

24 June 2011

Ugandan boxer Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma will not step in the ring again for at least six months after he was badly battered by Gennady Golovkin in Panama last Friday. Ouma spent a night in hospital after the fight and doctors have advised him to avoid any boxing activity for the rest of this year.

“I had head collisions with Golovkin and that led to bleeding on my skull according to surgeons in Panama,” Ouma told Daily Monitor in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Former IBF junior middleweight world champion, Ouma, had hoped to rejuvenate his faltering career against Golovkin but struggled to cope with the Kazakh boxer’s pace , skill and power.

Severely punched

He was severely punched that ringside physician Jeff Davidson had to critically examine the Ugandan in the seventh, eighth and 10th rounds, moments before he was knocked out.

Davidson ordered a neurological examination on Ouma after Golovkin had been declared winner of the WBA middleweight championship title and the results showed he had been injured.

“I have to follow doctors’ orders and maybe return next year,” Ouma, a former child soldier, revealed. Prior to last Friday, Ouma had never won a fight at middleweight category and his comprehensive defeat was not surprising to his former coach Musa Kent.

“That’s not Kassim’s weight. He drained himself too much ahead of the fight,” Kent, the current UPDF coach, noted. Some sections in the boxing fraternity have called on Ouma to retire but the 32-year-old pugilist is defiant.

“No way. I still have a lot to offer in the ring,” Ouma retorted. He has lost six of his previous seven fights.

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