Nordine Oubaali (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: نوردين أوبالي) (born 4 August 1986) is a Moroccan former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who competed from 2014 to 2021. He held the WBC

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

title from 2019 to 2021. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

he won a bronze medal in the

light-flyweight Light flyweight, also known as junior flyweight or super strawweight, is a Weight class (boxing), weight class in boxing. Professional boxing The weight limit at light flyweight in professional boxing is 108 pounds (49 kilograms). When New York (s ...

division at the 2007 World Championships.

Amateur career

Oubaali is the 13th child of 18 siblings in total. In 2006 he became French champion. At the 2007 World Championships the southpaw bested Arginian Junior Zarate (RSCO), Spaniard

José Kelvin de la Nieve José Kelvin de la Nieve Linares (born August 28, 1986, in Los Alcarrizos, Dominican Republic) is a boxer who competed in the light flyweight weight class at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics for Spain. He became a Spanish citizen in 2000 a ...

33:12, and Georgiy Chygayev (UKR) 25–9. In the semis he was overwhelmed by Chinese top favorite

Zou Shiming Zou Shiming (; born 18 May 1981) is a Chinese former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2017 and held the WBO flyweight title from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur, Zou is China's most successful boxer of all time. In the light-flyweight di ...

. At the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

he beat

Rafikjon Sultonov Rafikjon Sultonov (born 19 February 1988) is an Uzbek amateur boxer who competed at the 2008 Olympics at junior flyweight but was edged out by French southpaw Nordine Oubaali Nordine Oubaali (Arabic: نوردين أوبالي) (born 4 August 19 ...

8:7 and almost shocked local superstar

but lost 3-3+ (jury decision). For the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he moved up to flyweight (52 kg). He beat

Ajmal Faisal Ajmal Faisal (born August 14, 1990, Kabul) is an Afghan boxer. Faisal competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, representing Afghanistan in the Men's Flyweight. He was defeated in the Round of 32 by France's Nordine Oubaali Nordine Oubaali (Arab ...

in the first round,

Rau'Shee Warren Rau'shee Warren (; born February 13, 1987) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA (Undisputed), and IBO bantamweight titles from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur he won a gold medal at the 2007 World Championships, as well as bronze at t ...

in the second but then lost to Ireland's Michael Conlan in the quarterfinal.

Professional career

Early career

Oubaali made his professional debut against Sergey Tasimov on March 20, 2014. He won the fight by unanimous decision. Oubaali amassed an 11–0 record during the next two years, with eight victories coming by way of stoppage. Oubaali faced Alejandro Hernandez on June 2, 2017, for the vacant WBC Silver bantamweight title. He won the fight by a tenth-round technical knockout. He made his first and only title defense against

Mark Anthony Geraldo Mark Anthony Nipaya Geraldo (born 12 July 1991) is a Filipino professional boxer. He lost to Takuma Inoue for the OPBF super flyweight title. He has a loss to former world champion McJoe Arroyo and victories over world champion Jerwin Ancajas ...

on December 16, 2017, whom he beat by a seventh-round knockout. Oubali faced Luis Melendez in a non-title bout on April 7, 2018. He won the fight by a second-round knockout.

WBC Bantamweight champion

Oubaali vs. Warren

On November 21, 2018, it was announced by the WBC that Nordine Oubaali would face

Rau'shee Warren Rau'shee Warren (; born February 13, 1987) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA (Undisputed), and IBO bantamweight titles from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur he won a gold medal at the 2007 World Championships, as well as bronze at t ...

for the vacant WBC bantamweight title. Warren was ranked #1 by the WBC at bantamweight. The bout was scheduled for the undercard of the PBC on Fox card on December 22, 2018, at the

Barclays Center Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was not slated for network broadcast. The two of them previously fought as amateurs in the first round of the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, with Oubaali winning by decision. The bout was postponed on December 4, 2018, to allow Oubaali's coach and brother Ali to corner Estelle Mossely on December 22. The Oubaali and Warren fight was instead rescheduled for the

Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner, was a boxing match for the WBA (Regular) welterweight championship. The event took place on January 19, 2019 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao won the fight by unanimous decision and re ...

undercard on January 19, 2019, at the

MGM Grand Garden Arena The MGM Grand Garden Arena (originally known as the MGM Grand Garden Special Events Center) is a 17,000-seat multi-purpose arena located within the MGM Grand Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip. Sporting events From its opening on December 18, 1993 ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Oubaali was a -379 betting favorite, while Warren entered the fight as a +319 underdog. Oubaali captured the vacant title by unanimous decision, with scores of 115–113, 116–112, and 117–111. He spent the majority of the fight pressuring and controlling the pace, while Warren found most success in the fifth, seventh and eleventh rounds. Warren acknowledged the flow of the fight in his post-fight interview, stating: "He wanted it more...He had his foot on the gas".

Oubaali vs. Villanueva

Oubaali was scheduled to make the first defense of his WBC bantamweight title against the one-time IBF and WBO title challenger Arthur Villanueva. Villanueva was ranked number 15 by the WBC at bantamweight. The fight was scheduled as the main event of an

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

card, which took place on July 6, 2019, at the

Barys Arena Barys Arena ( kk, Barys Arena) is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Astana, Kazakhstan. It serves as a home arena for the Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The arena seats 11,578 spectators for ice hockey. See also *List ...

Nur-Sultan Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...

, Kazakhstan. Oubaali was a significant -3500 favorite heading into the bout, while Villanueva came in as a +1200 underdog. He won the fight by a sixth-round stoppage. Oubaali dominated from the start, causing a swelling to appear above Villanueva's left eye and knocking the Philippine fighter with an uppercut-right hook combination in the sixth round. Villanueva retired from the fight at the end of the sixth round.

Oubaali vs. Inoue

Oubaali was scheduled to make his second WBC bantamweight title defense against the interim bantamweight champion

Takuma Inoue is a Japanese professional boxer. He held the WBC interim bantamweight title from 2018 to 2019, and challenged for the full world title in 2019. Professional career He started boxing from a very young age, after watching his brother competing ...

. Inoue achieved the status of a mandatory challenger on September 11, 2018, with a unanimous decision victory against Mark John Yap. As he was forced to wait for the result of the Oubaali and Warren fight, Inoue furthermore fought and defeated Petch Sor Chitpattana on December 30, 2018, to become the WBC interim bantamweight champion. The fight between Oubaali and Inoue was scheduled for the undercard of the

Naoya Inoue is a Japanese professional boxer. He is a three-division world champion and currently the undisputed bantamweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, ''Ring'' magazine titles since 2019, the WBC title since June 2022, and the W ...

and

Nonito Donaire Nonito Gonzales Donaire Jr. (; ; born November 16, 1982) is a Filipino American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes from flyweight to featherweight, and is the oldest boxer in history to win a ...

WBSS final, which was held on November 7, 2019, at the

Saitama Super Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum spectator capacity is 36,500, making i ...

in Saitama, Japan. Oubaali outpointed Inoue to retain his WBC title. Oubaali scored the sole knockdown of the fight in the third round, when he dropped Inoue with a left hook. Although he was unable to finish his opponent, Oubaali nonetheless won by a comfortable decision, with scores of 117–110, 120-107 and 115–112.

Oubaali vs. Donaire

Oubaali was scheduled to make his third WBC title defense against the former four-weight world champion

. Donaire was ranked number 1 by the WBC at bantamweight. The fight was scheduled for December 12, 2020, at the

Mohegan Sun Arena The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the Perini Buil ...

Uncasville, Connecticut Uncasville is an area in the New England town, town of Montville, Connecticut, Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a Administrative divisions of Connecticut#Village, neighborhood, section of town, village in southeastern Montville, at the ...

. Oubaali withdrew from the fight on November 13, 2020, following a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

test. He was replaced by

Emmanuel Rodríguez Emmanuel Rodríguez Vázquez (born August 8, 1992) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer who held the IBF bantamweight title from 2018 to 2019. As an amateur he represented Puerto Rico at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics and won a gold medal in t ...

, who was to face Donaire on December 19, 2020. On December 9, 2020, Donaire was forced to withdraw from the Rodriguez fight, as he had tested positive for

as well. The fight between Oubaali and Donaire was rescheduled for May 29, 2021, as the main event of the PBC card held at the

Dignity Health Sports Park Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignity ...

Carson, California Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, located south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately away from Los Angeles International Airport. Incorporated on February 20, 1968, ...

. Donaire won the fight by a fourt-round knockout. Oubaali was knocked down twice in the third round, before getting finished with a hook-straight-uppercut combination in the fourth round. This would prove to be the last fight of his professional career, as Oubaali officially announced his retirement from the sport on April 5, 2022.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
Chicago resultsNordine Oubaali - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oubaali, Nordine 1986 births Living people French sportspeople of Moroccan descent Sportspeople from Pas-de-Calais French male boxers Bantamweight boxers World bantamweight boxing champions World Boxing Council champions Olympic boxers of France Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2012 Summer Olympics AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Mediterranean Games medalists in boxing Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Morocco Competitors at the 2009 Mediterranean Games