Ramla Ali and Skye Nicolson could meet in a unification contest early next year if they both win their title fights, live on Sky Sports in the early hours of Monday morning. At College Park Center in Arlington, Ali takes on Mikiah Kreps for the IBF and WBO super-bantamweight titles, while Nicolson, the WBC champion at super-bantam, boxes Miyo Yoshida on the same bill. Ali is looking for another fairytale moment in her journey through boxing.
A refugee from Somalia, she moved to London when she was a child. She took up boxing, initially in secret, and eventually became the first woman to box for Somalia at an Olympic Games. A model who's appeared on the cover of fashion magazines, a new film about her life has just been released.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "I just have to embrace and enjoy it," Ali said of the extraordinary run-up to this championship fight. "I'm hoping that this film creates a positive narrative," she told Sky Sports. "Migrants we don't just leave everything that we know.
"You do it because you're fearful for your life, you do it because you're wanting to create a safe environment for you kids, you do it because you want to see your kids thrive." The sport has changed her life. "Boxing provides hope to so many people. It's such a beautiful sport," she said.
"It provides a safe haven. It's a place where you can just leave all your troubles at the door and while you're there training for that hour and a half, two hours, nothing matters but that training and there's something quite beautiful about that. "If you watch boxing in its truest form, it's like watching art." Becoming a world champion would be the ultimate accolade.
"It would be something incredible to achieve alongside everything else," Ali said. "Britain's the only home I've ever known. But it would be an amazing thing to provide hope to thousands of people in Somalia, to show them that I came from where they came from.
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