# Newfel Ouatah

Newfel Ouatah (born November 8, 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 September 9, 2022 with Simon Kean. This boxing fight happened in Montreal Casino, Montreal, Canada where the fight ended bizarrely, as Ouatah takes 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

| 24 fights | 18 wins | 5 losses |
| By knockout | 10 | 5 |
| By decision | 8 | 0 |
| No contests | 1 | 1 |
| No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
| 24 | Loss | 18–5 (1) | Simon Kean | TKO | 1 (10), 0:11 | 9 Sep 2022 | Montreal Casino, Montreal, Canada | Ouatah takes a knee at the start of bout and refused to fight |
| 23 | Loss | 18–4 (1) | Vladyslav Sirenko | KO | 4 (8), 0:50 | 12 Jun 2021 | AKKO International, Kyiv, Ukraine | |
| 22 | Win | 18–3 (1) | Faisal Ibnel Arrami | UD | 10 | 15 Feb 2020 | Gymnase le Bourg, Gex, France | Retained French heavyweight title |
| 21 | Win | 17–3 (1) | Cyril Leonet | KO | 6 (10) | 12 Oct 2019 | Palais des sports Marcel-Cerdan, Levallois-Perret, France | Won vacant French heavyweight title |
| 20 | NC | 16–3 (1) | Tamaz Zadishvili | NC | 3 (6) | 12 Jul 2019 | Rue des Echarneaux, Valux-en-Velin, France | Both boxers DQ'd after the referee gave three warnings to both |
| 19 | Loss | 16–3 | Junior Fa | TKO | 1 (10), 2:51 | 2 Mar 2019 | Voinovich Center, Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | For WBO Oriental interim heavyweight title |
| 18 | Win | 16–2 | Tamaz Zadishvili | TKO | 3 (6) | 22 Dec 2018 | Palais des sports Jean Capievic, Vaulx-en-Velin, France | |
| 17 | Loss | 15–2 | Johann Duhaupas | RTD | 8 (12), 3:00 | 14 Dec 2017 | Palais des sports Marcel-Cerdan, Levallois-Perret, France | For vacant WBA International heavyweight title |
| 16 | Win | 15–1 | Jakov Gospić | UD | 6 | 11 Nov 2017 | Gymnase de I'espace, Gaillard, France | |
| 15 | Win | 14–1 | Dmitrij Kalinovskij | UD | 6 | 16 Jan 2016 | Gymnase Jacques Anquetil, Guvors, France | |
| 14 | Win | 13–1 | Jean François Traoré | UD | 6 | 28 Nov 2015 | Gymnase Jacques Anquetil, Givors, France | |
| 13 | Loss | 12–1 | Erkan Teper | RTD | 6 (12), 3:00 | 13 Jun 2014 | Bavaria Filmstadt, Munich, Germany | For vacant European Union heavyweight title |
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Grégory Tony | KO | 4 (10) | 30 Jan 2014 | Gymnase Louison Bobet, Rillieux-la-Pape | Won vacant French heavyweight title |
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Simone Loschi | TKO | 1 (6) | 4 May 2013 | Salle Raphael de Barros, Villeurbanne, France | |
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Mickaël Vieira | TKO | 4 (10) | 5 Oct 2012 | Gymnase Richardson, Le Pouzin, France | Retained French heavyweight title |
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Tomáš Mrázek | UD | 6 | 12 May 2012 | Salle Malherbes, Grenoble, France | |
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Cyril Leonet | UD | 10 | 17 Dec 2011 | Palais des sports Jean Capievic, Vaulx-en-Velin, France | Retained French heavyweight title |
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Cyril Leonet | UD | 10 | 20 Nov 2010 | Palais des sports Marcel-Cerdan, Levallois-Perret, France | Won vacant French heavyweight title |
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Aleksandrs Selezens | RTD | 1 (6), 3:00 | 10 Jun 2010 | Stadium P. Maisonniale, Saint-Étienne, France | |
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | Cyril Leonet | TKO | 4 (6) | 23 Apr 2010 | Gymnase J. Roure, Les Pennes-Mirabeau, France | |
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | Dmitrijs Basovs | KO | 1 (4) | 26 Feb 2010 | Salle COSEC, Feyzin, France | |
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Alban Galonnier | PTS | 4 | 7 Nov 2009 | Gymnase, Usson-en-Forez, France | |
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Róbert Gregor | TKO | 1 (4) | 25 Aug 2009 | Espace 3000, Hyères, France | |
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Azzez Layachi | TKO | 1 (6) | 30 Jul 2009 | Salle Opow, Béjaïa, Algeria | |

## 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).