Ahmad Ibrahim: “The Palestinian Golden Boy”

The following was originally published in our latest Sports Edition. Support Palestine in America by downloading a digital version, purchasing a physical copy or become a subscriber for $5 a month.

Ahmad Ibrahim is a well-rounded fighter, but it wasn't until after years of training with his uncle Rami Ibrahim and sacrificing his childhood that he achieved his ultimate goal of becoming the World Boxing Council (WBC) Champion.

Ibrahim wasn’t naturally a gifted fighter. He lost his first three fights and was planning to quit, before he surprised himself and placed second in a tournament in Iowa.

“My brother and all my cousins were all training [with my uncle Rami], and I was the worst one. I was the one that wasn't gonna make it. But I was actually the only one that lasted in the sport,” he told Palestine in America. “I hated everything there is about martial arts — when it comes to discipline, cardio, everything. I was a fat kid with asthma. I wasn't about that life.”

Last year, in a match surrounded by controversy, Ibrahim dethroned Adam Rothweiler, who held the title for the previous three years. In an interview with Palestine in America for our sports edition and our podcast, the 25-year-old described what it takes to become a pro fighter, wanting to defend his title this year, and the drama that ensued before and after winning the WBC title.

Palestine in America [PiA]: What Part Of Palestine Are Your Parents From?

Ahmad Ibrahim [AI]: I am from Silwad, Palestine — that’s Silwad with a “D,” not an “N.” 

I originate from Philadelphia, and that's where I currently live, but demi Falasteeni [my blood is Palestinian].

PiA: HOW’D [YOUR PARENTS] END UP IN PHILLY?

AI: My dad and most of my uncles were born in Kuwait, and the Gulf War happened and they immigrated to Philadelphia, and we’ve been here since.

PiA: What age did you start boxing?

AI: I’ve been in martial arts since I was 5, and I'm 26 now. I did taekwondo first for about eleven years. Then after taekwondo, I started training in muay thai kickboxing, and then I had my first fight in 2010 and I've been active since then.

PiA: Tell us about your uncle rami.

AI: So my brother and all my cousins were all training, and I was the worst one. I was the one that wasn't gonna make it. But I was actually the only one that lasted in the sport. And everyone kind of did their own thing and drifted out. For some reason my family was like, “Yeah Ahmad, sucks for you. You’re going to stay in the gym.” And I hated it. I hated everything there is about martial arts — when it comes to discipline, cardio, everything. I was a fat kid with asthma. I wasn't about that life. I actually lost my first three fights. And I lost my pro debut and I lost my first five wrestling matches. So I was never just gifted.

PiA: When did you know you were going to be good?

AI: My first fight was against someone who actually had 30 fights, and that was my first one and I got super beat up. I got destroyed and I never watched that video. Thank God it's nowhere to be found. My second fight I lost, [it was a] close fight. My third fight I lost, I was 15 pounds less than the other guy. Which is a lot in fighting terms — especially as kids. Fifteen pounds as a child is like 50 pounds [for adults]. And then I was like, “You know what? I'm cool. I quit.” But at the time, my dad had bought me a plane ticket to fight in a tournament in Iowa with my teammates, so I was like, you know, “I'm gonna go get my butt kicked over there, and then I will come back and be done.” But I don't know, SubhanAllah. The training didn't change, my mentality didn't change, nothing changed, and then I went to that tournament and did so [well]. I went to the finals. [I] had my first two wins and then I went to the finals and I lost, but it was one of those losses that I was okay with. And then from that fight, I didn't lose for four or five years as an amateur, as a junior. And just like that [snaps his fingers], it switched and it happened so fast.

PiA: What's the process like becoming a pro boxer?

AI: I didn't have much of a childhood. And I don't mean to say that in a depressing way. It was more so, like, I wasn't in the streets. I didn't really hang out with friends a lot. I was so adamant about training and being a champion, and my entire childhood all I thought about was the WBC belt. I have pictures [and] videos of me when I was 14 saying, “One day I'm going to be a WBC champion.” I had my goal, and that's all I worried about. In high school my schedule was very rigorous, very strict. I was that guy that my friends wouldn’t call because they knew I was never coming out. I would wake up at 5 a.m. This is for four years straight. I would wake up at 5 a.m. I would run, go to school, go to wrestling practice, and then I would walk to the gym. Then I would go home. That was my everyday for four years. Then I would fight as soon as wrestling season ended. I didn't have a season to rest. I was competing all year round. And I started [in] seventh grade. Then I wrestled all four years of high school, graduated high school and fought for half a year, then turned pro.

PiA: What type of fighter do you consider yourself?

AI: I have a lot of confidence in my hands, but my coach is very strategic with game plans, and for some reason I always end up fighting boxers. And if you have any IQ when it comes to fighting [you know] if they box, you don't box. If they kick, you don't kick. So I am very known for my kicks, but I definitely have hands and I was able to throw them [in] my last fight. I don't get to showcase them as much as I would like but only because I don't like to give my opponents satisfaction in playing the game they want to play.
PiA: Rami Ibrahim is your main trainer?

Pretty much my whole life, yeah.
PiA: I saw he started a new promotion team. are you a part of that?
AI: I try to help him as much as I can, but I have never fought for him yet. It's a little stressful.  He’s already dealing with all that, and I am his most experienced fighter. Inshallah one day we can find a way for me to fight on the show, but I don't want to give him more stress … where he has to run his show and he has to worry about me. One day I would love to fight for his title. I think it would be really good for our [family] legacy. I wouldn't say I'm signed to the show or anything, but I help any way that I can.

PiA: Take us through your last fight. you said you were dreaming about this opportunity.

AI: I used to say this all the time. And I used to tell my uncle this my whole life. I say, “Hey, if I ever win a WBC belt, and I never fight again, you would not hear me complain at all.” I promise you: you do not fight muay thai for the money because muay thai is probably the least-paid profession there is, period. You fight muay thai because you love it — no other reason. So, I always told my uncle, “If I win the WBC belt, I don't care. Anything after that is 100 percent a blessing. If I fight, I fight; if I don't, I don't.” I honestly can happily say I achieved everything I wanted. So the way that fight happened, my uncle and I got offered the WBC fight almost three years in a row. The guy who had the belt had it for about three years — 2-3 years. I took it. 

PiA:Adam Rothweiler? 

Yeah, all due respect to him. He's a great guy, so respect to him. My uncle was on the phone, and I remember I was doing situps. [He’s] smiling, and I'm nosy. And he gets off the phone. He looks at me. He just smiles, and I'm like, “What's up?” This is in July, by the way. He's like, “I did it. You're fighting for the WBC belt in September.” I was like, “Are you serious?” He's like, “Yeah,” and I just lost my shit. I just started screaming. Camp started there. And I would like to say it was my best camp physically and my worst camp mentally; it was so stressful. I could run 1,000 miles. And in my head, I was like, “I'm not doing enough.” And the guy who had it — Adam Rottweiler, again, always respect to him — but the way politics works, if you want the belt, you got to go out there and take the belt, especially if it's in their hometown. That's just how it works. It's messed up. But if I'm the champ, you got to take me out on a stretcher.

I'm in Philadelphia, the fights in California, so he's gonna sell tickets, and the crowd plays a part in the fight and can influence the decision. And on top of that, my uncle had his first show with Freedom [Rami’s promotion company]. It was the week I fight. So he was super stressed out. And I was super stressed out. And we're training together, we're both super stressed out. Honestly, very, very, very, very, very, very tense. But it was the first time that I ever had a strength coach, which I think made a big difference for my [mentality] [it] gave me a nice change of scenery at least twice a week. And [the strength training] just worked on my physique and it just worked a little bit more of my power, which played a huge part in the fight. So fight day happens [and] there's honestly a lot of … controversial shit that happened after the fight. I don’t mind getting into [it]. If you're ready for some tea, I'll give it to you.

PiA: Oh, we need the tea, but finish your thought first.

AI: I got to the fight, and 49 fights, man. Forty-nine fights, and I've never felt so alive in my life. Like I almost dropped him in the first round. And the dude was a champ for a reason. He was tough as shit. I threw the kitchen sink at him. And he just ate it. You know what I mean? But like, five rounds, I think I won every single round. And I don't know, man, everything was just aligned. Like everything was just like SubhanAllah. [It was] everything that I imagined; it just was perfect. I don't know many people who could say that they truly achieved their dream. When it comes to dreaming, I'm not necessarily the one who says I want to be rich one day. I want to be happy inshallah, one day, that's what I want, but the WBC belt  did not make me any richer. If anything, it made me more poor. It costs money to fight muay thai; you don't make money. But just having that in my head, God willing, one day when I have kids, and they tell me, “Baba, I want to be this one day,” I could look at them and say, “Habibi I had a dream and I did it. And you could literally do anything. Anything you put your mind to, despite adversity, despite being a Palestinian — because we all know damn right people don't like us — despite any obstacles, that if you focus and you dedicate your time enough, you can truly achieve anything, man. And I think that's the biggest flex that I have; I can walk up to anybody and say, “Yeah, I called it when I was 14. And I did it.”

PiA: Anybody who's done any fighting sport can understand the effort that you put in. it's the people who haven't really been in it that don't really understand it.

Fighting is black and white. They don't see the gray, and that gray is huge. Like, people don't know what fighters go through mentally. And I always tell people, if you fight, you're not mentally stable. There's no chance in hell.

PiA: No way. That's why i stopped wrestling after high school. i'm a little stable.

AI: Wrestling is the hardest sport I ever did in my life. You cannot be mentally stable and willingly put your body through that kind of torture — mentally and physically.

PiA: Tell us what was the drama after the fight?

So, I'm over it now. I have a lot of stories against, I guess, discrimination, whatever you want to call it. And sometimes I think it's because I'm Palestinian. Sometimes I think it's because of my uncle’s legacy and his history, and it just gets passed down to me. I don't know. [I] can't say why it happened, but I actually didn't get my WBC belt for about a month after the fact.

PiA: Don't they give it to you right after the fight? they just handed it to you, right?

AI: Right after. And for some reason, the promoter just didn't want to give it to me and tried to tell me that I need to sign a contract to fight on his show again to receive the belt.

PiA: And that's not normal?

AI: That's not normal. That's not, no, that's not normal at all. I actually was given my opponent's belt. And he gave it to me against his will. So the way it works, if I have the belt and you fight me and beat me, you get a brand new one, and I keep mine. Okay? That's how it's supposed to go. Like, I don't have the title. But I have the belt as a memory. And you have the belt and the title now. So he was never supposed to lose his belt. And they made him give me his belt, which was about three years old, scratched up, wrinkled, whatever. It's a three-year-old belt, you know what I mean? Yeah, I went through a lot to get the belt, and I had to actually fly back to California and get the belt. So I don't know if you look at the pictures that I posted. I did two photoshoots; one was with a whole black suit. And if you look at the belt, it’s different than my [Instagram] profile picture because it's a complete different belt. There was the WBC belt from like three years ago. It's completely different. Now it's more like the boxing style with all the extra coins on it. WBC sanctions boxing, and it sanctions muay thai. The muay thai belt was different and actually wasn't as nice as it is now. So I was given the belt from years ago. Now, it was a little upsetting, because, you know, this was my dream. And I pictured it, and the way I pictured it wasn't what happened. It was against my will. And I didn't even have a say in it. And then I got home to Philly and started to make some moves. [I] got in contact with the WBC and a whole bunch of shit happened. And then I had to fly back to California. It was just a headache. When you work so hard for something, especially as a fighter … the least you could have done is give me my title.

PiA: Did you give his back? 

AI: Yes. Adam … I hope I'm not exposing you. He gave me his belt just because when he won, he didn't get one. And he didn't want me to go through that. 

PiA: SO HE'S A GOOD GUY?

He was a great guy. And I don't like fighting — excuse my language — I don’t like fighting assholes. No disrespect to MMA, [but] MMA has a lot more money. So, some people sell themselves in a certain way and to be a dick to sell tickets and stuff like that. [In] muay thai, there's not as much money, so there's no need to act like that. So, there's a lot more respect, and a lot less shit talking because, bro, you could talk like an asshole, but you're not gonna make any money out of it. You might as well just be a decent dude. You know what I mean? There's a lot more tradition in Muay thai, so it's very rare to fight people that are like Logan Pauls and Jake Pauls and doing it for the wrong reason, especially as a pro, you know?

PiA: So what is your opinion on that? 

AI: I'm not fond of it. And I see what Jake Paul did to Tyron Woodley and honestly, Tyron has lost [his] last seven fights. He's not a prime example of a fighter at the moment. And there's nothing wrong with that. He had a great legacy. I just think he's getting to a point where he should retire. And I think Jake Paul's selling himself a certain way. And he's doing a great job at it. Yeah, I just think it’s annoying, and I'm petty. I've been doing this shit my whole life, and I barely get paid. No fighter’s gonna be okay with it. When I'm like, “Bro, you don't really live that life.” But at the same time, I'm never gonna knock anyone's hustle when they're making [as]much money as he's making. It is what it is, man. I just don't like when people talk so much shit.

PiA: WHAT'S NEXT? YOU SAID THE WBC TITLE WAS YOUR DREAM. YOU ACHIEVED THAT. WHAT'S THE NEXT GOAL?

AI: Ooh, 2022 is a big year. It's gonna be a lot of change for me. I can't address so much, but I'm in the process of moving. And I'm probably going to start coaching at another gym out of Philadelphia. Inshallah, please say inshallah, no more bad luck. That's my plan. And I'm going to take a couple more fights. And I really just want to start the next point of my future. And a lot of people want me to fight MMA, and the only reason I would fight MMA is for the money. And to me, someone who grew up in, like, not poor, you know, and we weren't rich. We weren't poor. That's not a good reason for me to fight. I'm not like one of those people who have this crazy story, how I lived in the street, I need to make money. So to fight MMA just for money is the only incentive I have. I don't think that's a good reason. Because I wrestled for five years, and it just makes sense to just do it. Maybe I fight in the cage one day, maybe I don't. Honestly right now, I still feel like I won the belt yesterday. I'm still soaking it in, talking to my coach, and in the process of possibly taking a job outside of Philly. So it'd be a little bit weird to have the fight camp without my uncle. I don't know, man. My uncle paved the way; he paved me six different streets. So I'm kind of just figuring out which street I'm gonna take and just worrying about my future, my health. My uncle has fought for about 24 years. And this is my 12th year fighting. I'm young, but 12 years is still a lot of years, and I see what the fights did to my uncle’s body. And I don't want that.

PiA: BUT WHAT'S THE ULTIMATE GOAL PAST THIS. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF FIGHTING IN BIG BOXING MATCHES, OR WOULD YOU SEE YOURSELF DEFENDING YOUR TITLE?

AI: I do want to defend the belt. I need to defend it so I really feel like the champion. So that's definitely going to happen next year. I'm going to defend the belt but long term, my main goal is to one day open my own gym.

PiA: I LOVE YOUR UNCLE’S GYM. I SEE IT FROM AFAR. AND IF HE INSPIRED YOU TO MAKE YOUR OWN GYM IN ANOTHER POCKET OF THIS COUNTRY, THAT'S REALLY DOPE.

AI: That's the plan. I want to branch out, and I want everybody to know who we are and what we do and why we do it. Being Palestinian is a huge, huge part of my identity. [I] actually put a post up today, joking around, [saying], “Hey guys, if you didn't know, I'm Palestinian.” Like they say, if you're Palestinian, you're gonna let everybody know, like, you're gonna know [I’m palestinian].

PiA: THAT’S WHY I MADE THE MAGAZINE 

AI: So, I want to continue to fight. When I say everything after this is a blessing, it's just a blessing. It's just an excuse for me to take my flag, and just put it in your face and be like, we are still here. Nothing in the game will give me that same amount of satisfaction as my last fight. But I'm not done representing my people in this way. I'm going to represent my people for the rest of my life, and one day when I have a gym, it's gonna be represented with Falasteen. But as of right now, I'm not done in the ring. And I find so much joy, man, having my flag. My shorts is my flag. It just makes me feel like I'm doing something. And I'm sure my fights [aren’t] gonna free falasteen. There's no way my muay thai fight in New York is gonna make a difference. But I feel like it lets them know, back home, like, listen: you guys are fighting the real fight. And I just want you to know that we see you. We see you and we are projecting your message that they're the real warriors. And we're just the voice. My uncle always says, “We are the voice of the voiceless.” So I think it's very important to do my job and use my platform that Allah gave me to show people that we are still here. So that is my goal right now: to continue to fight and raise my flag.

PiA: MAN, I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. AND I ALWAYS TELL PEOPLE, LIKE, WHAT YOU DO, OBVIOUSLY, IT'S NOT GOING TO FREE FALASTEEN. BUT IT DEFINITELY LIFTS PALESTINIANS’ HEADS UP, WHETHER IT BE BACK HOME OR HERE IN THE DIASPORA. SO, IT'S HUGE WHAT YOU GUYS DO, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR FLAG ON YOUR SHORTS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE LAD WALKS INTO A FIGHT WITH THE FLAG HANGING.  THAT'S HUGE.

AI: When you have a situation as hopeless as Falasteen, it's nice to see people not forgetting, you know what I mean? Our flag … it's not just for colors. It's not just a regular flag man. There's so much resilience and history behind that flag.