Mai Soliman: “All roads lead to the world title.”

Mai Soliman: “All roads lead to the world title.”

Mai Soliman is seven 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 edging ever closer to a shot at the world title.

Soliman spent a good part of her formative years on the road.

“I was born in Cairo, Egypt,” Soliman told me over Zoom. “My 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’s 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 sport. From swimming, football, and running.”

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.

“I was in high school, and I really wanted to try something different,” Soliman told FightPost. “I 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’t seen any girls boxing. It just got me interested in it.

“I 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’t tell my parents at the beginning. I wasn’t sure how they would take it, with me getting hit. But I just fell in love with boxing.”

“I think it’s the rush of it,” Soliman says of what the attraction of boxing is. “I 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’t come across boxing, I don’t know what I would be doing.”

Soliman had twenty-four fights in her amateur career, but thoughts of her first ring walk are still vivid.

“It 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’t really have anyone there with me. I wasn’t scared but I was thinking what have I done. Is this the right decision to make? It was an exhibition fight, so it wasn’t 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.”

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.

“I won a regional title, so I was number one in my weight division when I won that,” Soliman relayed to me. “My style was always more suited to being a professional, which is why I didn’t really try to win a National title or try out for selection for the National team. But I don’t regret anything. I am happy where I am. Everything happens for a reason, and this is where I am meant to be.”

It was the somewhat restrictive nature of amateur boxing that prompted Soliman to look elsewhere.

“I just love the longer rounds, more than three rounds,” Soliman says of what the attraction of professional boxing is. “You 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.”

Soliman shares her desire for three-minute rounds with a living legend of women’s boxing. A fighter she draws much inspiration from.

“I love what Amanda Serrano is about and everything that she is doing. I’m a big fan of the three-minute rounds, and she is too. It’s 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.”

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.

“I learned a lot from the defeat. You think everything is going well and you don’t 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.”

Mai Soliman, now on a five-fight winning streak, returns to action on March 29th against the veteran Sarah Watt with the WBC Australasia super-flyweight title on the line. An important fight for Soliman.

“As well as getting me ranked in the WBC and recognised by the other sanctioning bodies, it grows my name, not just in Australia, but outside as well,” Soliman says of where a win over Watt will take her. “After this fight, I’d like to get a few more fights with Australian fighters, but then get to fight overseas. Just to get more experience under my belt and grow more into my division, and keep chasing the girls in the top ten. Eventually, all roads lead to the world title.”

Soliman is clearly on the road to world titles. An aim to reach the very top of her sport. But before she gets there, her division is loaded with potential opponents in Australia. Linn Sandström is a former world title challenger who is looking for another opportunity on the world stage. But another fight is of interest to Soliman.

“There are a few girls I would love to fight here in Australia in the super-flyweight division. You’ve got Jasmine Parr and Taylah Robertson. Taylah is in America. She is living there now. But a fight with Jasmine would be great. They are trying to claim she is the next big thing, so it’s fair if we test the waters. if they want to put a regional title on the line, then we can do the fight. I am not interested in non-title fights. After this fight, I want to keep growing. But right now, I’m just focused on fighting Sarah Watt. Once this fight is over, then I can focus on anything else that comes after that.”