Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (born 18 February 1984) is a Cameroonian-French
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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...
. He has held
WBO
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...
middleweight title in 2012 and the
WBA (Regular)
The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is an international professional boxing organization based in Panama. The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level.
Founded i ...
title in 2017, and has challenged once for a
super-middleweight
Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing
In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...
world title in 2019.
Amateur career
N'dam N'Jikam won a silver medal in the
middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...
division at the
2003 All-Africa Games
The 8th All Africa Games, also known as Abuja 2003, were held from 5–17 October 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria. 53 countries participated in 23 sports. The main venue was the newly constructed Abuja Stadium. The organizing committee was headed by N ...
, losing to
Ramadan Yasser of Egypt in the final. N'jikam represented Cameroon in the
middleweight bracket at the
2004 Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
, defeating
Juan Ubaldo
Juan José Ubaldo Cabrera (born April 30, 1979 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional) is a boxer from the Dominican Republic best known to win the PanAm title at middleweight as an amateur.
Amateur
At the Sydney Olympics 2000 he lost in the first ...
of the Dominican Republic and
Andy Lee Andy Lee may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Sportspeople
* Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter
* Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer
* Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City
* Andy Lee (footb ...
of Ireland on close countback decisions, but losing in the quarter-finals to eventual gold medallist
Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov
Gaydarbek Abdulovich Gaydarbekov () (born October 6, 1976) is a Russian boxer who has won two Olympic medals in Middleweight, including the gold medal at the 2004 games. He qualified for the Athens Olympics by winning the 2004 European Amateu ...
of Russia.
Following the Olympics, and having no means of boxing professionally in his native Cameroon, N'Jikam moved to France due to the shared language.
At the
2016 Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
, professional boxers were permitted to compete at the Olympics for the first ever time. As one of the few professionals who entered, N'Jikam once again represented Cameroon and qualified for the
light-heavyweight bracket, but lost in the first round to
Michel Borges of Brazil. This was seen as a surprise to many boxing observers, who predicted that amateurs would not fare well against experienced professionals.
Professional career
N'Jikam made his professional debut on 4 December 2004, scoring a third-round
stoppage against Alexis Culit. On 30 October 2010, having fought mainly in his adoptive France, N'Jikam won the vacant
WBA interim middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...
title with a close
unanimous decision
A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...
(117-111, 115-114, 115-114) over
Avtandil Khurtsidze at the
Palais des sports Marcel-Cerdan
Palais des sports Marcel-Cerdan is a multi-purpose indoor arena, indoor sports arena that is located in Levallois-Perret, Levallois, Paris, France. It is primarily used to host basketball games. The arena is named after the French Boxer (boxing), ...
.
N'Jikam's only defense of his title was made on 2 April 2011 against
Giovanni Lorenzo. He won a wide unanimous decision (119-109, 119-110, 116-111) However, major controversy arose during the fight when N'Jikam was knocked out of the ring by a series of punches from Lorenzo in round five. A WBA official then helped N'Jikam back into the ring, which was against the sanctioning body's rules. Lorenzo's team later argued that this should have been grounds for immediate
disqualification, as well as disputing the overly wide scorecards.
A
purse bid
A purse bid is an initial step in arranging a professional boxing match, involving the fight's/card's promoter(s). All interested registered promoters may bid on the amount of the purse (the total money that the fighters will be paid for the ma ...
was ordered between N'Jikam and
WBA (Regular)
The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is an international professional boxing organization based in Panama. The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level.
Founded i ...
champion
Gennady Golovkin
Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time former u ...
. The purse bid was scheduled for 2 February 2012. However, days before the purse bid N'Jikam vacated his title rather than face Golovkin.
On 4 May 2012, N'Jikam won the vacant
WBO
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...
interim middleweight title via unanimous decision against
Max Bursak.
He was later promoted to full world champion status on 25 August, after
Dmitry Pirog was stripped of the title for choosing to fight
Gennady Golovkin
Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time former u ...
instead of
mandatory challenger
In professional boxing and some other combat sports, a mandatory challenger is an opponent whom a champion must either fight (in a mandatory defence) or be forced to vacate their title as champion. The opposite of a mandatory defence is a ''volunt ...
N'Jikam. In his first world title defence on 20 October, as well as his first fight in the United States, N'Jikam suffered six
knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision loss (107-115, 107-115, 107-115) to
Peter Quillin.
N'Jikam won an
IBF title eliminator over
Curtis Stevens with a unanimous decision (119-108, 116-111, 116-111). Stevens was knocked down in round 8. A second opportunity to become world champion came on 20 June 2015, against
David Lemieux for the vacant
IBF middleweight title. N'Jikam again endured multiple knockdowns—four in total—but managed to go the distance to lose on the cards (109-115, 109-115, 110-114).
2016 saw N'Jikam reel off four consecutive victories, with a brief pause in August to compete in the 2016 Olympics. On 17 December, he emphatically re-entered the world title scene by becoming WBA interim middleweight champion for a second time, following a brutal one-punch
knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...
of
Alfonso Blanco in only 22 seconds of the first round.
N'Jikam then won the full (
Regular
Regular may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* "Regular" (Badfinger song)
* Regular tunings of stringed instruments, tunings with equal intervals between the paired notes of successive open strings
Other uses
* Regular character, ...
) title with a controversial
split decision
A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor.
A split de ...
(116-111, 115-112, 110-117) win over
Ryōta Murata
is a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2022. He held the WBA (Regular) middleweight title twice between 2017 and 2021, and the WBA (Super) middleweight title from 2021 to 2022. As an amateur, he won a silver medal ...
on 27 May 2017. N'Jikam was knocked down in round 4 but survived and got the decision. When the result was announced, the crowd at
Ariake Colosseum jeered. The two judges who scored the fight for N'Jikam were immediately suspended and WBA president Gilberto Mendoza issued a public apology. A rematch was immediately ordered by the WBA, and scheduled for 22 October.
On 22 October, Murata decisively beat N'Jikam, who threw in the towel after round 7. Murata's body attack wore his opponent down, he was also able to hurt him with a series of combinations. The fight was attended by 8,500 people at the
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
, also known as Ryōgoku Sumo Hall or Kokugikan Arena, is the name bestowed to two different indoor sporting arenas located in Tokyo. The first ''Ryōgoku Kokugikan'' opened its doors in 1909 and was located on the premises of the Ekōin temple i ...
. This was N'Jikam's first stoppage loss.
On 22 December 2018, N'Jikam managed to overcome a knockdown and beat former title-challenger Martin Murray via a majority-decision win. N'Jikam won on the scorecards, 117-112 and 116-112, while the third judge scored the fight a draw, 114-114.
On the Joshua vs Ruiz undercard, N'Jikam fought Callum Smith for his WBA world title. Smith would end up dropping N'Jikam three times. Despite getting up from the third knockdown too, the referee decided to stop the fight and award Smith the victory.
In his next fight, N'Jikam lost again, this time against WBA #1, WBC #6, IBF #8 and WBC #11
Fedor Chudinov in Russia.
On June 8, 2020, N'Jikam announced that he will transition into MMA, signing with French MMA promotion ARES FC.
Professional boxing record
References
External links
*
2003 All Africa Games resultsHassan N'dam N'Jikam - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankingsa
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:N'dam N'jikam, Hassan
1984 births
Living people
Cameroonian male boxers
Boxers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Boxers at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic boxers for Cameroon
World Boxing Organization champions
World middleweight boxing champions
African Games silver medalists for Cameroon
African Games silver medalists in boxing
Cameroonian emigrants to France
World Boxing Association champions
Boxers at the 2003 All-Africa Games
Sportspeople from Buea