19 December 2023 |
When Ramla Ali arrived at the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to the pandemic, she took a walk through the athletes’ village. She was the first boxer, male or female, to represent Somalia at the Olympic Games, and took time to centre herself when she could. Amid more than 11,000 peers, she got some stares, but not why you’d initially think. In the oppressive heat, she was wearing blue denim jeans.
GUCCI
“Yep, I really stuck out,” she says with a grimace from the glam chair at her photoshoot with 10. “That was an experience.” Rather than a strange, singular, sartorial choice, the jeans were a small but poignant signifier for Ali’s expansive, remarkable journey. “I wanted it so bad, but it wasn’t a level playing field,” she says. Because for her Olympics pursuit, Ali had no supplied kit or country tracksuit, no sponsor and no support other than her husband-slash-coach Richard Moore, at odds with other countries’ well-financed – and kitted out – teams. She was totally self-funded. Ali had been on a modelling job for 12 hours straight the day before she flew to Tokyo. “I was having to do shoots and modelling around tournaments and training. It took a toll. I was trying to focus, while worrying about money. I am blessed to represent my country and inspire a new generation of women into sport, but it wasn’t easy.”
Ali’s exceptional life can be viewed through several prisms. Through her survival – as a baby, her family fled Somalia’s civil war and arrived in London as refugees, settling on an East End council estate to spend her formative years (she doesn’t know her exact age, with documents lost to the conflict, but guesses around 34). And through her history-making victories – she was the first Muslim woman to win an English boxing title in 2015, scoring a Featherweight Championship triumph in 2019, then smashing through all six rounds in her highly anticipated professional debut in 2020, while in 2022 she competed and won with a technical knockout in the first pro women’s boxing match held in Saudi Arabia. She also has a first in law from the prestigious SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and wrote a formidable debut book, Not Without a Fight. Activism is a defining through line, too. Twenty-five percent of her first year of boxing earnings was pledged to Black Lives Matter charities, she’s a Unicef ambassador and a vocal advocate for refugees, and the founder of Sisters Club, a charitable initiative that supports Muslim women and other minorities to learn boxing and other sport across the UK and US.
SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO
Fashion has been a strong narrative tool for communicating Ali’s story. “Style, I think, is how we can outwardly show who we are, and then, what we stand for,” she says. “And I love to combine my passions of fashion and sport.” Ali recalls wearing her sister’s hand-me-downs (“stylish, thankfully”), and coveting her fake Dior bag as a child – full circle, as she’d row up to become a Dior ambassador and muse for Maria Grazia Chiuri. Before boxing was the profession, it was Faith – Ali’s first job was in the now-defunct British high street shoe shop.Over the years, she’s embedded herself in the industry, choosing partnerships that champion her Somali identity, modesty and comfort as a Muslim woman in sport, and her own vibrant personal style. For her first professional title match, the IBF Intercontinental Super Bantam weight Title, she collaborated with Off-White for a custom blue and yellow fit. The robe was emblazoned with the Somali panther a motif and her shorts were branded with the Spanish word ‘chingona’ (‘badass’), a nickname from coaches for her verve. She’s also worked with Dior and Alexander McQueen to design robes for pivotal title matches.
from left: BALENCIAGA, RAPLH LAUREN, GUCCI, GUCCI
She’s come to set today limping, having pushed herself hard on a group 10K through Griffith Park in Los Angeles. “Obviously, I get super competitive,” she says, “and I came second – it’s worth it to look these big men in the eyes and say ‘good job’ when you beat them!” Ali moved to LA with her husband in January 2022. She’s deep in camp, a gruelling six days a week, twice a day training regime led by legendary Compton-based boxing coach Manny Robles. “I don’t know many people here, so I can get my head down and focus.” Ali has won eight out of her nine professional fights. Her next match in November will see her square off against Julissa Guzman in Monaco, are match after the boxer beat her in June. “I stay excited. Excited for the victory. I never allow myself to be scared.”
Relentless determination and fighting spirit have propelled her rise. Ali looks back at school, when she was bullied for being overweight, and thinks about her first experience of the gym age 14 at a boxercise class. “I knew I found something I could love and commit to,” she says. “I caught the bug. I loved the discipline and the sense of direction, all from someone shouting ‘100 burpees! Now!’” At 17, she began to spar, quickly gaining a reputation for speed and stamina. “I felt fearless. I loved seeing myself get better; I even loved getting beaten up. Then I got competitive. It was very different from the monotony of my life outside the gym.” In those early years, Ali hid her boxing talent from her parents, fearing their disapproval. In 2014, her brother saw one of her televised boxing matches and told their mother, who commanded Ali to stop. She did, but not for long. “Six, seven months max… I was back in the gym,” she says. “Nothing could keep me away from that feeling.” Her uncle convinced her mother that boxing was a viable path and, ever since, she’s openly pursued her dreams and represented both her country and young women in sport. “You’d never see women’s fights on TV, they just weren’t televised,” she says. In 2012, she was in the audience for the Katie Taylor versus Natasha Jones fight at the London Olympics. “That was magic. It was the first time I thought: I could really do this. I want to be a part of this.” It’s a seminal match for both the public consciousness and Ali’s psyche, being the first time women’s boxing was included as an Olympic sport.
MOSCHINO
“It’s always been seen as a male-dominated sport, and lots of gyms would have you believe that still,” Ali says. “I’ve heard ‘women don’t box’ plenty. I’m happy to have seen that change for the better and be a part of influencing that shift.”
Following her successes, Ali set up non-profit Sisters Club in 2018. “I didn’t see anyone who looked like me,” says Ali. “So I went out to make it so. I’m so proud of the community we’ve created.” It continues to expand and has just received financial support from Nike and Lululemon, which will support running clubs in London and Florida, as well as the club’s core boxing classes, basketball and football sessions.“I want to grow it and give women freedom to enjoy and engage with sport. We want to be that space for women who find it hard to gain access to sport in a safe environment.”
“Boxing to me is like an art form,” she adds. “It can be perceived as brutal and bloody, but watch the technique and the rhythm, skill, movement, and you see its true beauty.” To see Ali box is to believe that, and in and out of the ring she beats back negative connotations of the barriers that female boxers and others sportswomen come up against.
Ali’s personal arc has also seen her reckon with her own self-image. “I have grown to love my body – it gets me ready for and drives me through battle. Being in and out of camp can be hard. When I’m heavier and things don’t fit me, I could get upset. But my body is the reason for so many of my life’s incredible moments.”
She recalls going to a modelling agency who demanded she be willing to show more skin. “It made me sad,” she says. “And I was under so much strain. I needed money for kit, a nutritionist, to train. But I always wanted to set a good example for young girls who feel o much pressure for how they should look and be seen.”She found IMG, an agency widely recognised for its diverse portfolio.
“You’ve always got to be you, and you’ve always got to know yourself,” says Ali. “You are at your most powerful as you, and if the right people want you, it’s not because you’re naked.”
Boxing and modelling may seem like conflicting arenas. And at times that might be true, like when Ali once turned up to a photoshoot with an open cut under her eye. But they’re both ways Ali expresses and empowers herself and others. She was sad to miss fashion week this year due to training, but cites her favourite designers and shows: the wearability of Coach, the glamour of Dior and the theatre of Schiaparelli, as well as Daniel Lee’s best of British Burberry. Her first ‘pinch me’ luxury experience was a gifted Coach dress: “I saw Kate Moss wear it too!”
“I gravitate towards comfort,” she says of her style. In training mode, that means sweats and crocs in multiple colours. “But I lovemaking an effort and feeling like a different version of me when I can dress up. I love glam, to put on heels and a nice dress to go big! I adore bright colours because they look good against black skin. And I love my big hair. I’ve come to embrace my curls; when I can release it from those sweaty buns it’s freeing.
“I remember I’d swing past New Bond Street and peer in the windows of Chanel and Gucci, and I’d think: one day I’ll be able to afford it. Now brands want to work with and dress me! Young Ramla never could have imagined that.”
And while her mother now shows unabashed pride for Ali’s achievements, “she still knows how to humble me!” says Ali. “I’ll tell her I’m going to the Met Gala and she’s like, ‘okay… and what is that?’”
A biopic is in the works,In the Shadows, with Black Panther’s Letitia Wright set to star as Ali. The pair met at a McQueen show in 2020. “She actually came up to me and said she’d love to play me in the film, which she had heard about.I loved how bold she was, I vibed with that immediately. The producers were immediately on board.” Wright has been out to LA to watch Ali train in recent months.
Out of the shadows, in the ring or on fashion’s front rows, Ali is on the path to greatness. What advice would she give? “Have a ruthless refusal to quit at anything that you want to do, or be defined by anyone.
Taken from 10+ Issue 6 – VISIONARY, WOMEN, REVOLUTION – out now. Order your copy here.
SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO
Photographer MAGNUS UNNAR
Fashion Editor and Talent RAMLA ALI
Text ANNA CAFOLLA
Sittings Editor BROWNY BAZALDUA
Hair ARAXI LINDSEY at A-Frame Agency using Araxi Botanicals
Make-up AMBER D at A-Frame Agency using 111skin and Prada Beauty
Manicurist RERI ISHIZU at Opus Beauty
Photographer’s assistant TUCKER LEARY
Fashion assistants GEORGIA EDWARDS and SONYA MAZURYK
Production RICHARD VILLANI
Special thanks to RICHARD MOORE
