Beyond The Ropes: Alana Moussa

Beyond The Ropes: Alana Moussa

For Alana Moussa, boxing was a hobby before it became her job. There was no desire to fight until she watched Holly Holm end the UFC bantamweight title reign of Ronda Rousey. And then, everything changed for Moussa.

The 26-year-old was born in Melbourne, Australia. “I had a great upbringing,” Moussa told FightPost. “I come from an Egyptian and Italian background, so family is everything for us, and because of this, I’ve always been a family-oriented person. I have a little sister who’s 23, she lives interstate, but I still see her as often as I can, taking into account her work schedule and my training schedule. Growing up, a lot of my core memories were ones with my family. Most weekends, I was with my cousins either at family gatherings or we’d all go away as a big group, and wherever we went, we were always entertained and active. I have so many happy memories from my childhood, and I remember being a really happy kid, but I also remember being such an insecure kid, and I think so much of that relates to why I do what I do now and why I love it so much.”

For Alana Moussa, boxing has morphed into being a very big part of her life. “Honestly, boxing was my hobby before it became my job, both as a fighter and as a coach. Along with fighting professionally, I also coach! I really do live and breathe the sport now, and it’s so rewarding. I love being a coach because nothing is more fulfilling than being able to teach people every day the sport you love the most and having them listen and trust you. Plus, I get so much more enjoyment watching someone perfect their jab or hit a PB on a run or a lift than I ever did from any job I had prior.”

Even from an early age, sport was very much a constant. “Growing up, my parents never really forced me into any team sports or physical activities until I had more of a say,” Moussa relayed to me. “But my cousins did, and so it got me naturally more active! I always loved sport. I tried a few things, but nothing really stuck, and eventually, I played soccer for a couple of years for a team before just joining the school team and playing for them. Any chance I had to be out of class and playing sports was always my priority.”

By chance, really,” Moussa says of how she started in boxing. “I used to watch a lot of UFC, again because of my cousins. I never actually watched the boxing, and nobody around me really did either, but I remember watching the Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey fight back in 2015 and instantly thought ‘I want to do that’. It’s weird, I vividly remember the fight, where I was and turning around to my mum saying I’m gonna do that. Not long after, I was looking into gyms around my area, which happened to be a boxing gym, and the rest is history.”

Moussa had tried different sports before boxing found it’s grip. In many ways, it was a natural fit. “At the time, the gym I started at was called ProFit,” Moussa says. “My coach, Brad, looked after a few Commonwealth Games boxers and went down the Olympic amateur route for his fighters. Boxing is the hardest sport of all, especially the fundamentals, and to get a hold of the basics. Like I said, I dabbled in a few sports, but nothing really stuck until I started learning how to box. I naturally was pretty good at picking it up, coordinated enough, and I just became obsessed with learning it and how good it felt to see the hard work of repetition pay off to eventually become muscle memory.”

“Now boxing is everything,” Moussa added. “I have learnt so much about myself in the last few years of my career, especially and have achieved things I could have only dreamt of as a little girl. It gives me the sense of purpose I was always looking for and gives me so much pride. I am really blessed to be able to do this every day.

“Look, it’s obviously hard. It’s the hardest sport of all, and it’s for good reason,” Moussa replies when I ask her what the hardest part of boxing is. “I could list so many and elaborate on why certain days are harder than others, or compare the physical to the mental, but honestly, I chose this hard, and when you choose your hard, it makes it so much more worth it. Unless you’re in it, it’s hard to understand, but a lot of what is considered to be hard in the moment is temporary.”

“Of course,” Moussa says when I ask if she can remember her very first ring walk. “So, I never got the chance to fight under my first gym and coach. I had about a four-year gap in between training due to Covid and other things, and unfortunately, my old gym didn’t survive the pandemic, which led me to my next and current gym, Team Ellis. I walked into that gym in December 2020, and coach Tai Tuiniua (who is still my current coach to this day) had me fighting in April 2021. The muscle memory was still there enough when I got back into things, but I had a lot of work to do, a lot of weight to lose, and a lot of fitness to get back. But I instantly fell back in love with the sport again and became obsessed. I remember in that fight camp, I said to myself, I wish I were a professional athlete. That’s how much I loved the whole process leading into a fight. The fight itself was a tough fight. Spectators called it fight of the night, I got my first win UD, and from there, I made it my mission to make it a career.”

Moussa turned professional last year with a win over Siriwan Thongmanit and followed that up with a recent unanimous four-round points victory over the debutant Shannon Rose. There are short-term ambitions of wanting to fight for and win state titles and various Australian titles thereafter. But longer term, the super-middleweight hopeful has ambitions of winning world titles. The one-time hobby is certainly far more now.

“I am so proud of myself for sticking it out and getting myself here,” Moussa told me. “It takes a lot of hard work in and out of the ring and a lot of people to get behind and support you through the journey and for my team, for my family, the support I am forever indebted and grateful but I do just hold such a sense of gratitude to myself for believing in myself and not giving up. Turning professional is my best achievement, one I am so proud of because it was purely hard work and self-belief that got me here, so it’s just such a good feeling.

“I’m excited to be a part of the sport, especially as a woman. I think women’s boxing is at a very positive spot and moving only upwards at a rapid rate, so to be a part, that is so special. I want to be a household name, a fighter that you want to watch and follow, a fighter that people remember and look up to in the sport for years to come and indefinitely when all is said and done. I hope to leave a legacy and take it to the highest level I possibly can, God willing.”