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<\/p>\nBeyond The Ropes: Mai Soliman<\/p>\n
Mai Soliman is now eleven fights into her professional career. Only one early blemish spoils her resume. But the Egyptian-born super-flyweight contender has recovered quite magnificently from that early reversal and is now only hours away from her first world title opportunity. A proper full circle moment for her. <\/p>\n
Soliman spent a good part of her formative years on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born in Cairo, Egypt,\u201d Soliman told me over Zoom. \u201cMy dad was working for the Foreign Affairs department in Egypt. We moved to Dublin, Ireland, and we lived there for a few years. We then moved back to Egypt when his work in Ireland was over. My dad got a job in Australia, and that\u2019s when we moved there when I was 9. We decided to stay here. I made a lot of friends and was achieving a lot in sports. I have always been around sports. From swimming, football, and running.\u201d<\/p>\n
From an early sporting background that included multiple sports, Soliman wanted something else, and it was one of the biggest fights of all time that was the catalyst for her entry into boxing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in high school, and I really wanted to try something different,\u201d Soliman told FightPost. \u201cI just felt I needed something else. I had a lot of mates in school, and I started watching a lot of boxing. The fight that got me really interested in boxing was the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in 2015. I kept seeing a lot of advertising about the fight. That fight got me really interested at the time. I was doing athletics and football at the time, and I thought I hadn\u2019t seen any girls boxing. It just got me interested in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked one of my friends, who was doing boxing at the time, I asked him where he was doing it. He told me it was at a local gym, which was close to my home. So I started going there after school. I didn\u2019t tell my parents at the beginning. I wasn\u2019t sure how they would take it, with me getting hit. But I just fell in love with boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the rush of it,\u201d Soliman says of what the attraction of boxing is. \u201cI feel like I am always chasing the next thing. I think it gives me discipline. It taught me a lot of things about myself. It showed me my identity. Who I am. Who I am meant to be. If I hadn\u2019t come across boxing, I don\u2019t know what I would be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soliman had twenty-four fights in her amateur career, but thoughts of her first ring walk are still vivid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was someone who was around twelve years older than me. I was very small and very young. I was only seventeen at the time, and my opponent was very intimidating with how she looked. I didn\u2019t really have anyone there with me. I wasn\u2019t scared but I was thinking what have I done. Is this the right decision to make? It was an exhibition fight, so it wasn\u2019t really about who was going to win and who was going to lose. All I remember thinking was just go in there and survive. But as soon as that fight finished, I can remember thinking I just want to do this again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mai Soliman did do it all again and had much success in those twenty-four amateur fights despite always having one eye on turning professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won a regional title, so I was number one in my weight division when I won that,\u201d Soliman relayed to me. \u201cMy style was always more suited to being a professional, which is why I didn\u2019t really try to win a National title or try out for selection for the National team. But I don\u2019t regret anything. I am happy where I am. Everything happens for a reason, and this is where I am meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the somewhat restrictive nature of amateur boxing that prompted Soliman to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love the longer rounds, more than three rounds,\u201d Soliman says of what the attraction of professional boxing is. \u201cYou can go up to ten rounds. But as you can see, I have been pushing for three-minute rounds. I just love the whole pro scene. I just think amateur and professional boxing are two different sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soliman shares her desire for three-minute rounds with a living legend of women\u2019s boxing. A fighter she draws much inspiration from. \u201cI love what Amanda Serrano is about and everything that she is doing. I\u2019m a big fan of the three-minute rounds, and she is too. It\u2019s great to see, and she has done a lot. She started from a place wanting to earn some good money, and she is now doing that. I have a lot of respect for her, and I am a big fan of hers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soliman turned professional in 2022, and after a debut win over Ali Jenson, she suffered a surprise defeat to Bec Moss via a split decision. But Soliman is reflective of that early defeat and believes she is now a better fighter because of that loss to Moss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot from the defeat. You think everything is going well, and you don\u2019t want to change anything. We removed unnecessary things from the preparation for a fight. It has helped me a lot. If you asked me if I would change anything, I would say no. I am a completely different fighter from what I was back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Soliman (10-1) has moved on from that early reversal. Nine fights and nine wins since losing to Moss in 2022 have brought her to that maiden opportunity at becoming a world champion. In November, the 28-year-old stopped the highly-regarded Jasmine Parr in seven rounds in a fight of the year contender. That victory sealed the biggest fight of her career. Soliman will challenge the unbeaten Mizuki Hiruta for her WBO world super-flyweight title at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. It is the chance of a lifetime, but it is one that has been earned and not given.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tPublished by FightPost: MMA & Boxing News\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n