UBO African champion Rolly Lambert shares his inspiring story so far

From sleeping on the streets as a kid to becoming the UBO African Cruiserweight champion, Rolly Lambert Fogoum’s career has been nothing short of extraordinary. We managed to catch up with Lambert for an exclusive and here is his story.

Sleeping in the streets and knocking out a Local Champion

Born in Cameroon, he lost his father at a young age itself and was split from his mother due to circumstances.

Rolly Lambert Fogoum: I had to start living by myself going to school, hustling and sleeping in the street. In order to survive there, I had to fight the thugs to get some respect and establish myself amongst them. Like other youngsters, I used to admire great guys like Jean Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan on the cinema screens. All these guys influenced both my fitness and boxing journey. I used to love the meanness of Mike Tyson in the ring and I wanted to be like him. So at the same time, I was trying to look good physically and be able to fight as well. In 2010 I joined a boxing gym and had my first amateur fight after 2 weeks of training.

In his first amateur fight, Lambert knocked out a local champion and this kick-started his amateur career in which he secured seven wins and no defeats.

Moving to Dubai and Finding a way to support his Boxing Career

He completed his degree in law in 2013 and moved to Dubai in search of better opportunities. Lambert lived and worked in a gym where he polished his boxing and fitness skills and a year later in 2014, he made his professional boxing debut at the Marine Club in Dubai. The Cameroonian star secured a win in his first fight and also had his second fight in the same year which went to a draw.

It is after this fight that he realized that he could explore the option of fitness modelling to support and fund his boxing career.

Rolly Lambert Fogoum: One day during a sparring session I was top-less and some fitness models were watching me. At the end, they told me that I could compete and win some medals and trophies as a fitness model because I have a good looking physique. At first, I didn’t want to. But because I wasn’t getting boxing fights in Dubai, having no promoter, my career was not moving. I gave a trial to fitness modelling for my first competition I became beach body champion in the Middle East.

Lambert decided to take a small break from his boxing career and decided to focus on fitness modelling for some time. This change of approach paid off big time as he won many competitions and also helped him to build a career as a fitness trainer.

This, in turn, helped him to sponsor his boxing career himself and he believes that everything happens for a reason.

Rolly Lambert Fogoum: I believe those 3.5 years were not wasted at all. Therefore, my advice is to believe in God first of all, and that whenever an opportunity hits your way, go for it because everything happens for a reason. Don’t lose it.

The return to Boxing

It was in 2018 that he returned to boxing. He returned with a TKO win in Vienna and then followed this up with one defeat and three more wins. Lambert then tasted gold when he won the vacant UBO African Cruiser Title by defeating Stephen Abbey.

The return of Lambert was fuelled by Jose Mohan of Round10 Boxing who helped Lambert to manage the boxing career. And in the long run, Lambert hopes to make a huge statement in the boxing world.

Rolly Lambert Fogoum: That was a new start. He accelerated thing with his contacts and jump-started my boxing activity again we have successfully been working together like two brothers up to the UBO African championship, Along with some other teammates in training and sparring. It’s a teamwork and we aspire for a great future that will compensate all the sacrifices that we have been making to build ourselves up. One step at the time, with the help of God, we are trying to get sponsors and we are planning to make a statement at the world-class level.

Also Read: Indian Boxing star Faizan Anwar talks his career so far, future plans and more

 

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