Newfel Ouatah

Historically France has been a country with numerous memorable boxers such as Georges Carpentier, Marcel Thil, Ray Famechon and Marcel Cerdan. Sadly however in recent years the French boxing scene has all but died off with the likes of Jean Marc Mormeck and Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam only managing to give the sport a short shot in the arm.

With this in mind however it's fair to say that French boxing isn't dead, it's just not what is used to be. Earlier this year the talented Michel Soro (19-1, 12) showed that France does still have some talent to be unearthed  and perhaps the most promising of the emerging French fighters is Heavyweight Newfel Ouatah (10-0, 6).

Ouatah first took to the sport as a child when the rest of France was celebrating the football team that went on to dominate European football at the turn of the millennium. With in just a few years Ouatah was starting to make an impact as a solid amateur fighter and in 2004 he claimed his first notable amateur title, the French National Championships in the Heavyweight division, stopping all 3 of his opponents on route to the title.

After his national success it was only a matter of time before Ouatah would appear on the international stage and that's exactly what he did just months later as he fought at the 2004 World Junior Championships. At this competition Ouatah lost to Cuban star Robert Alfonso, who himself went on to claim a Bronze medal.

Over the following few years Outah fought in various international tournaments. Whilst he generally didn't come out victorious in the biggest competitions he did often hold his own and picked up various titles such as the 2005 Copenhagen Cup, the 2006 French National Championship, the 2007 African Championship and numerous silver medals in things like the 2007 French National Championships and the 2007 All Africa Games (where he competed for Algeria, due to his families roots).

Despite the title wins and the various medals that Ouatah collected it's fair to suggest that the highlight of his days in the unpaid ranks was competing at the 2008 Olympic games. Whilst Ouatah failed to medal at the Beijing games, losing in the Quarter Finals to Vyacheslav Glazkov, he was still able to say that he competed with some of the best on the planet.

Following from his Olympic journey Ouatah turned professional and debuted in July 2009 by defeating Azar Layachi by TKO in the opening round. By the end of the year Ouatah had swiftly moved to 3-0 (2) having stopped Robert Gregor in a round before winning a 4 round decision over Alban Galonnier.

Having started his career well things went from strength to strength and the following year Outah would score 4 more wins, winning 3 by opening round T/KO before defeating Cyril Leonet by 10 round decision to claim the French Heavyweight title. Despite being inexperienced Ouatah had come of age and claimed his first belt in just his 7th professional bout.

Sadly just as it seemed like Ouatah would continue his rise he spent almost a year out of the ring before defeating again Cyril Leonet in the first defense of the French Heavyweight title. Since then Ouatah has fought just twice, though has defended his national title once more, defeating Mickael Vieira by TKO5 (after Vieira suffered an injury).

Whilst it's certainly far too early to say just how far Ouatah could go in the sport, he has the necessary amateur background and natural size (standing at around 6'6") as well as power to take a fighter places. Hopefully he can either reinvigorate the French boxing affair or move to either the UK or Germany and really get his career back under-way as he's a big, strong guy who could be very interesting if given the chance to shine.