Sadam Ali gets that old feeling back, outclasses Cody Wilson in 10
After six years away from boxing, Sadam Ali needed to shed a few coats of rust. That’s just what the 36-year-old accomplished on Sunday, as he went the full 10 rounds with Cody Wilson at Wayne County Fieldhouse in Detroit.
The former WBO junior middleweight titleholder Ali shut out Wilson on two cards, 100-90, while the third had it 99-91, all for Ali, who improved to 28-3 (14 KOs) with the victory. It was the first time back in the ring for Ali, a 2008 US Olympian from Brooklyn, New York, since his third-round stoppage loss to Anthony Young in May 2019.
Wilson, who works full time with the National Guard back home in West Virginia, dropped to 14-6 (9 KOs) with the loss.
Ali, who says he needed the time away after having boxed nonstop since he was a kid, admitted he needed those rounds to get the feeling back.
“I felt a little rusty in there. It’s been over six years that I haven’t been in the ring. But I’ve got heart, I’m a dog, I’ve been boxing my whole life,” said Ali afterwards.
“This dude was really tough. He came to fight, he was trying to come forward and he didn’t give up at any point even when I caught him with hard shots, which made it harder to stay in there.”
After a tentative start, Ali began to test the punch resistance of Wilson, putting together rights and hooks that woke up Wilson. Wilson began to put more pressure on Ali in the second, landing a pair of hooks as Ali moved to the ropes. Ali’s craft continued to befuddle Wilson, as he calmly put combinations together, changing speeds to keep Wilson from getting too comfortable. Ali began to smile in the third round as he got his feet under him, firing quick if not particularly powerful combinations. Ali invested in the body in this round, landing numerous lefts to the midsection, taking advantage of Wilson’s inability to counter that punch.
Ali began to get more authoritative with his overhand rights in the fifth, taking advantage of Wilson’s lack of head movement.
Ali reacted to Wilson’s aggression by turning his overhand rights over more in the fifth.
As the rounds progressed, Ali’s superior skill and experience became more prominent, as he boxed smoothly and evaded most of Wilson’s punches. Ali looked like he was in a sparring session, slow-rolling Wilson with combinations while reserving most of his power for the body. Wilson would explode whenever Ali backed himself into the ropes, but Ali was comfortable to keep his guard high and get back to work after Wilson would gas himself out. The two accepted the roles they were in, with the outcome long ago decided, with Wilson trying what he could and Ali in total command.
Ali, whose WorldKid Promotions company promoted the event, said afterwards that he would be back in the ring again.
Ali wasn’t the only former world titlist making his ring return on the card.
Former IBF lightweight belt holder Richard Commey, 31-5-1 (28 KOs), ended a two-year layoff with a second-round stoppage of William Jackson, 13-7-2 (5 KOs), at the 2-minute, 37-second mark. Commey, 38, was fighting for the first time since his 11th-round knockout loss to Jose Ramirez in March 2023.
Local fan favorite Husam Al Mashhadi gave his hometown fans something to cheer about, stretching his winning streak to seven with a third-round knockout of Ghanaian journeyman Abraham Afful. Mashhadi, 13-1 (11 KOs), of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, hurt Afful, 13-7-1 (13 KOs), with a southpaw left at the end of the second round and then finished him with a flurry the following round in their eight-round junior middleweight fight. Mashhadi, who was born in Iraq, turned pro in 2021 with limited experience. He suffered his first loss, by majority decision, against Rance Ward in July 2023.
Bantamweight contender Khalid Twaiti successfully rebounded from his first-ever defeat, outfighting the determined but outgunned Francisco Gomez Sanchez over six rounds. Twaiti, 15-1 (5 KOs), of Brooklyn, New York, won by shutout scores of 60-53 on two cards – consistent with the one-sided nature of the bout – while a third judge somehow had it even in rounds at three apiece, with Twaiti prevailing by a single point, 57-56, due to a knockdown he scored in the opening round.
With the win, the 29-year-old Twaiti bounced back from his decision loss to the still-unbeaten Emanuel Moreno in June.
Twaiti, who is listed at 5ft 7ins, had at least a 6ins height advantage over his opponent, and was forced to crouch to a comical extent to land on the 33-year-old Sanchez, 14-14 (11 KOs), of Chiapas, Mexico. Twaiti scored the only knockdown of the fight near the end of the first on a left hook high on the head. Despite being technically and physically outgunned, Sanchez never stopped trying, rushing in – usually without a jab – to fire off wide shots to the head and body. That practice backfired on Sanchez as Twaiti hurt him once more in the third, this time with a right hand, while taking advantage of the opportunity to land uppercut counters.
Twaiti began to stand a little taller in the fourth round, establishing his jab and keeping Sanchez at bay. Twaiti never seriously hurt Sanchez again until the final minute of the sixth, when a left uppercut sent him backwards and off balance.
Sanchez, who has now lost his past seven fights, has been stopped only four times and went the distance in his two previous fights, against former world titleholders Cristofer Rosales and Felix Alvarado.
In eight-round cruiserweight action, Giovanni Scuderi, 13-0 (5 KOs), remained undefeated, besting Demetrius Banks, 13-18-2 (6 KOs), by unanimous scores of 79-73. After a passive first few rounds, Scuderi, 31, of Ridgewood, New York, by way of Catania, Italy, picked up the action in the fifth round, as he began to rain down right hands on the fading, 45-year-old Banks, a local of Detroit. Banks, who has now lost six straight, couldn’t keep up with the aggression of his opponent, but he had enough tricks up his sleeve to slow Scuderi down whenever he pressed for a knockout, landing counter rights on his 6ft 6ins opponent in the fourth and eighth rounds when Scuderi overextended himself.
Scuderi, rated No. 13 by the WBA at cruiserweight, had trainer Bozy Ennis working as chief second.
Sardius Simmons, a southpaw heavyweight from Flint, Michigan, kept his unbeaten record intact, moving his record to 3-0 (2 KOs), with a second-round stoppage over Rudolph Shaw, who dropped to 0-5, with all five losses coming by stoppage. The fight itself was a pointless exercise as the 35-year-old Shaw appeared untrained in the sport as he frequently turned his back under attack and slapped with punches. Simmons, who turned pro after winning the National Golden Gloves super heavyweight title in May, did what he had to do, ripping body shots against his taller opponent, dropping him once in the first and giving him a standing eight count before that.
The fight was stopped at the 33-second mark of the second round.
Opening up the card, Marcos Paz, 5-0 (2 KOs), of New York’s Long Island, stopped Kenneth Agnew, 0-4, at 48 seconds of the third round after putting the local fighter down with a left hook to the body. Paz pulled double duty on the night, working later as Scuderi’s cutman just a couple fights later.
