Ahmad Kaddour - Boxing Career

Boxing Career

After winning the Danish National Amateur Championship in 2000, and his 2nd Nordic Amateur Championship (1999 and 2000), and lots of international amateur experience (Dual in England, Finland, Dual in Sweden, Home dual v Sweden, Germany), Kaddour turned pro. Kaddour started his career in Europe, fighting in Denmark, Wales, Hungary, Finland, Italy and Germany including a fight against Alessio Furlan at Braunschweig, Germany. The fight went the full distance with Kaddour winning narrowly on points to inflict Furlan with the first defeat of his professional career. Soon after Kaddour moved to America to further his career.

He was a contestant on the reality TV show The Contender, and was placed on the East Coast team. While on the team, he got involved in a feud with Ishe Smith early on and they fought in the 3rd match. At the time Smith was world ranked by all 4 sanctioning organizations and held the USBA, the NABF, and the WBC Continental Americas titles. Kaddour gunned for an early KO but Smith weathered the storm and won by unanimous decision, calling it a "tough fight" afterwards. Kaddour was voted back into the quarterfinals after Juan de la Rosa pulled out - a tactic by Jesse Brinkley, Anthony Bonsante, Peter Manfredo, and Joey Gilbert designed to get under Smith's skin. The week after Smith lost a split decision to eventual Contender and WBC champion Sergio Mora, Ahmad was matched with Alfonso Gomez (who went on after the show to challenge for the WBA 147 lb and WBC 154 lb titles) by the same boxers who brought Kaddour back, with the hope that the two tough fighters would battle hard and the winner would be less ready for the semi-finals. Kaddour beat Gomez's face badly (Gomez pointed to his face in a post fight interview saying this was his sacrifice) and came away relatively unscathed himself, but lost by 1 round on 1 card and 3 rounds on the other 2 cards. Kaddour claimed that he would be back and wished Alfonso the best.

The first of the Contender contestants to fight again after the show's finale, Kaddour dominated through an 8-round unanimous decision against Maxell Taylor on July 22, 2005. Months later he fought Jesus Felipe Valverde to a draw due to a recurring stamina problem. Two of the judges scored the fight even and the third had Kaddour winning by two rounds. Two months after this, in November 2006, Ahmad had a rematch against Valverde, which he won by split decision.

Ahmad's fiance on the Contender series was Brandy Collins, an American who sponsored him for a fiance visa. They were married after the Contender and had a son in 2006. Brandy told him to leave her home in Houston. According to BoxingScene.com and a Houston Tribune article, Ahmad entered the home without her permission in June 2007 and was charged with burglary. He pled guilty to trespassing and was sentenced to 180 days in Harris County Jail in downtown Houston and Brandy withdrew her sponsorship of him with the INS, causing Kaddour to be deported to Denmark upon his release from jail in December 2007, and Collins obtained a divorce. Kaddour also reportedly had problems breathing through his nose and had surgery.

After an almost 3 year hiatus from boxing working a steady job, Kaddour appeared on the undercard of Danish WBA Super middleweight Champion Mikkel Kessler's 2nd title defense at the Messecenter in Herning, Denmark, September 12, 2009. On one of the judge's score cards, Kaddour won all six rounds and Kaddour only gave one and two rounds on the other two cards, respectively, winning a unanimous decision. Even though Kaddour took the fight on short notice, throughout the fight he landed left hooks and right uppercuts on tough German Mike Ermis, who had not been stopped in 16 pro fights.

On March 26, 2010, Kaddour beat Jerome Ellis by unanimous decision 80-72, and 79-73(x2) on a card in New Jersey. On February 11, 2011 Kaddour beat Lee Noble by unanimous decision, not giving any rounds away, and even getting three 10-8 rounds on one card, due to his dominance. It was televised on Denmark's TV2 "Fight Night". In May 2011, Kaddour moved to the Detroit area and trained with Greg Coverson at the "Detroit Boxing Jungle" before scoring a 5th round TKO over Vance Garvey at the Motor City Casino on October 6. On June 2, 2012, after training in Karsten Roewer´s gym in Berlin, Germany, for Team Sauerland, Kaddour fought at the Messecenter Herning, Denmark, televised on TV3 as part of a "Nordic Fight Night" series Sauerland contracted to promote Scandinavian boxers. The fight was considered a trial with promotor Wilfried Sauerland for Kaddour for possible further appearances in the series. Kaddour showed up in shape and beat Britain's Gary Bouldon (6-3-2) with wide margins on 2 cards 79-73, 78-74, but scored a draw on the 3rd card 76-76, for an 8 round majority decision. After the fight, he moved from #3 to #2 in the IBF Intercontinental rankings, and earned a spot in the next Nordic Fight Night card held at Nord Arena in Frederikshavn on September 22, 2012, against Jamaican born British fighter, Max Maxwell, who had lost a 12 round British title fight on points 6 months earlier. Kaddour started fast in the first 2 but started to breathe deeply in the 3rd. Maxwell fought back in 4 and 5 but Kaddour outworked him in 6 and 7, forcing Maxwell to charge forward and throw "haymakers", desperate for a last round knockout in the 8th that never came. Kaddour won 5 of the 8 rounds on all 3 cards (77-75) for a unanimous decision.

In August 2012 World Boxing News spoke with both Ishe Smith and Alfonso Gomez about possible rematches with Kaddour, giving him the opportunity to avenge his only 2 losses. Smith ruled a rematch out in the immediate future as he was still trying to attain his first world title shot through Golden Boy Promotions, but Gomez expressed interest and promised to "beat him worse this time".