Career
Born into poverty, at the age of six he was kidnapped and forced to join the National Resistance Army and consequently did not see his family for five years. Only 4 brothers are still alive. Upon leaving the army, Ouma started boxing and amassed an amateur record of 62 wins and 3 losses.
He made the Ugandan national boxing team and was selected to fight at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, but did not attend due to financial difficulties.
On a Ugandan national amateur team trip to the United States, Ouma decided to stay to undertake a career as a professional boxer to support his family in Uganda. Ouma later lost this title in a unanimous decision defeat against Roman Karmazin, a bout in which Ouma was put to the canvas twice.
lieutenant was only the second defeat of his career. Since the Karmazin bout, Ouma has remained active in the Light Middleweight division, earning three wins, two by knockout.
On May 6, 2006 Ouma defeated Marco Antonio Rubio by split decision despite being knocked down in the first round.
Powell is from Brooklyn, New York and the fight took place at the Theatre of Madison Square Garden. The official scorecards were 90-100, 93-97, and 94-96 all in favor of Kassim Ouma by unanimous decision. Ouma lost the middleweight title shot against Jermain Taylor on December
9, 2006.
Taylor"s power and well-timed clenches kept Ouma from throwing as many punches as he usually does. Despite absorbing a large number of extremely hard shots, Ouma did not go down. The fight went the full 12 rounds, and Ouma lost by unanimous decision.
The judges scored the fight 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113 for Taylor who was at home in Little Rock, Arkansas.
After the Taylor fight Ouma lost back to back close decisions to Saul Roman in October 2007 and Cornelius Bundrage in March 2008. On September 25, 2010, Ouma stopped Joey Gilbert in the 6th round of their 10-round bout for the vacant NABA middleweight title at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.
Ironically, while in Uganda he was never shot despite being in the army. However, after having moved to America he was shot twice in Florida in December 2002.
According to Kassim, his father was beaten to death by the Ugandan army in retaliation for his leaving of the country.
A documentary entitled "Kassim the Dream" was made in 2008. lieutenant was an official selection at several film festivals. After years of Ugandan media speculation, United States-based Ugandan boxer Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma finally walked down the aisle on August 23, 2008, with long-time girlfriend Jalia Nandawula, a practicing nurse and pharmaceutical proprietor in Texas.
The boxer’s wedding came at a time when he and ex-lover, singer Juliana Kanyomozi, were having a rift.
