Hiiraan Online

You could call Ramla Ali a high-fashion model who also boxes.

Or a boxer who’s also a model, which is the way she prefers it.

Or a UNICEF ambassador with a special interest in refugees since she herself is one, having fled with her family from Somalia when she was a toddler after a grenade killed her older brother in that country’s civil war. The family eventually settled in London.

For her humanitarian efforts, Ali recently was recognized as one of Time Magazine's Women of the Year.

Or you could call her an Olympian, an author and an entrepreneur. Not many folks have walked to the ring in Madison Square Garden and on the red carpet of the Met Gala.

If that all sounds like the stuff for a movie, it is.

“In the Shadows,” based on Ali’s 2021 memoir of her life and starring Letitia Wright from the "Black Panther" movie franchise, goes into production in England and Kenya later this year.

Ali probably could have played herself, but she emphatically says, “I can’t act!”

By then, Ali (8-0, 2 KOs) expects to be a world champion, something she can take a major step toward Saturday by beating Julissa Guzman (12-2-2, 6 KOs) in a 10-round junior featherweight bout on the Regis Prograis-Danielito Zorrilla undercard at the Smoothie King Center.

“This is where I want to be, testing myself against someone of Julissa’s caliber,” Ali said. “I want to show myself and the world exactly who and where I am.”

Ali is no YouTube influencer who boxes as a lark. She’s serious enough to have relocated from London to Los Angeles with husband/manager Richard Moore and train full-time with veteran Manny Robles.

The modeling — Ali has contracts with the likes of Cartier and Dior — is no side hustle, either. Moore, whom she married in 2016 just three months after they met, estimates that 90% of Ali’s income comes from those sources.

“Modeling pays the bills,” Moore said. “We couldn’t have been able to make the move without it.”

But Moore added that his wife has turned down six-figure modeling gigs to not interrupt training for a fight.

She’s also not afraid of getting her face busted up in combat. In fact, her nose has been broken and Ali has gone to photoshoots with stitches and bruises.

“It comes with the territory,” Ali said. “If you’re going to box, you’re going to get hit.”

Ali began boxing as a teenager primarily to lose weight. She took to it, but had to hide her participation from her parents — even as she advanced in the amateur ranks — because of their cultural conservatism.

That experience led Ali and Moore to found Sisters Club, an all-female gym that offers a safe environment for women of similar backgrounds. There are now four Sisters Clubs in London and two in Los Angeles.

Sisters Club drew the attention of IMG, leading to Ali’s modeling career.

In 2020, Ali and Moore came up with the idea of her representing Somalia in the Tokyo Olympics, even though the failed state has no Olympic organization and the idea of Ali returning to the country of her birth has been deemed too dangerous.

No matter. They became the Somalia Boxing Federation; Ali won the African qualifying division; and she carried her country’s flag in the opening ceremonies, although she lost her first-round match.

Ali then turned pro and was signed by promoter Eddie Hearn.

Now, Ali is on the verge of boxing stardom, if she’s not there already.

But her other duties still call. After fighting Saturday, she has a photoshoot in London on Monday, starting a four-week stay there followed by one week in Paris. Then there are trips to Kenya and Nigeria on behalf of UNICEF.

Ali, 33, is unsure how much longer she wants to box. As much as she loves it, children are on her and her husband’s agenda.

And who knows when something else might come along?