Newfel Ouatah (born 8 November 1985) is a French-Algerian professional boxer. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2007 African Championships at super heavyweight, a silver medal at the 2007 All-African Games and fought at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Amateur career Ouatah started boxing in 1998 after the World Cup in France, while all the other children were playing football, he prefer to start boxing in front of his block, at the Club Pugillistique Villeurbannais's Gym. He fought after two month of training his first educative fight and won it. Then he became 2000 French champion in the middleweight division (-75 kg). In 2001 he won the French Cadets (under 17) championship in the light heavyweight (-81 kg).
As a Heavyweight he won the 2002 and 2003 Junior (under 19) Nationals championships. He lost in the quarterfinals of the junior world championships when he lost to Robert Alfonso.
He became the 2005 (against Stéphane Gomis) and 2006 French champion at 201 lb by beating John M'Bumba twice time by knock out. He captured the bronze medal at the 2005 Mediterranean Games.
Then he asked the French federation to agree him to start boxing for his native country.
In 2007 he lost to M'Bumba, went up a division and started fighting for Algeria where he immediately won a silver medal at the All Africa games losing to Ahmed Samir Abdelhalim 8:17.
In 2008 he qualified for the Olympics by beating Stéphane Gomis of Sénegal and Moroccan Mohamed Amanissi 21:8 in a qualifier.
Even in April 2008 he fought his fourth fight against M'Bumba when the fight was amazingly stopped after 1:20 in the last round giving to M'Bumba a disputed winning decision.
In June 2008 he won the St Quentin's Pré Olympic tournament by winning the final against German Erik Pfeifer. He started his Olympic preparation with Jean Baptiste Mendy's coach, Houari Amri.
In the round of 16 he upset Jose Payares of Venezuela, in the quarter-final he was beaten by World Championship silver medallist Vyacheslav Glazkov of Ukraine 4:10.
At the Ahmert COMERT tournament in 2009 he took his revenge against former conqueror and 2007 PanAm and 2008 World Cup winner Robert Alfonso by KO in the second round (one-punch knockout).
Professional career He turned pro in 2009. His last fight was on 9 September 2022 with Simon Kean. This boxing fight happened in Montreal Casino, Montreal, Canada where the fight ended bizarrely, as Ouatah took a knee in the first round in protest and Kean was gifted a 1st round TKO win. Ouatah was punished with another loss on his record and his purse withheld, Ouatah later explained the reason of the in-ring protest was due to being refused insurance by the local French Boxing Federation.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes24LossSimon KeanTKO1 (10), 9 Sep 202223Loss18–4 Vladyslav SirenkoKO4 (8), 12 Jun 202122Win18–3 Faisal Ibnel ArramiUD1015 Feb 202021Win17–3 Cyril LeonetKO6 (10)12 Oct 20192016–3 Tamaz Zadishvili3 (6)12 Jul 201919Loss16–3Junior FaTKO1 (10), 2 Mar 201918Win16–2Tamaz ZadishviliTKO3 (6)22 Dec 201817Loss15–2Johann DuhaupasRTD8 (12), 14 Dec 201716Win15–1Jakov GospićUD611 Nov 201715Win14–1Dmitrij KalinovskijUD616 Jan 201614Win13–1Jean François TraoréUD628 Nov 201513Loss12–1Erkan TeperRTD6 (12), 13 Jun 201412Win12–0Grégory TonyKO4 (10)30 Jan 201411Win11–0Simone LoschiTKO1 (6)4 May 201310Win10–0Mickaël VieiraTKO4 (10)5 Oct 20129Win9–0Tomáš MrázekUD612 May 20128Win8–0Cyril LeonetUD1017 Dec 20117Win7–0Cyril Leonet1020 Nov 20106Win6–0Aleksandrs Selezens1 (6), 10 Jun 20105Win5–0Cyril LeonetTKO4 (6)23 Apr 20104Win4–0Dmitrijs Basovs1 (4)26 Feb 20103Win3–0Alban Galonnier47 Nov 20092Win2–0Róbert GregorTKO1 (4)25 Aug 20091Win1–0Azzez Layachi1 (6)30 Jul 2009
Personal life Ouatah's the cousin of French football player Karim Benzema, Newfel's and Karim's families are from the same town in Algeria (Ath Djellil). He's also a cousin of famous Algerian singer Hanifa (Hanifa's mother is the sister of Newfel's grandfather).
References
External links
His blog World Junior Championships 2004 French 2005