Name: (Ben Ali Hamed Mimun) Mimoun Ben Ali
Born: 7 July 1938 Farkhana, Morocco
Career: 1955 to 1969
Record: 101 fights, 72 wins (17 by KO/TKO) 20 losses (2 by KO/TKO) 9 draws.
Division: Bantamweight
Stance: Southpaw
Titles: Spanish Bantamweight, European Bantamweight (three times),
Major Contests
Scored wins over: Christian Marchand, Pentti Hamalainen, Ramon Arias*, Kamara Diop, Nelson Estrada, Albert Younsi, Manolo Alvarez, Federico Scarponi, Piero Rollo*, Pierre Vetroff (twice), Tommaso Galli, Alan Rudkin*, Franco Innocenti Carmelo Massa,
Lost against: Francisco Carreno (twice), Mario D’Agata**, Ramon Arias *(twice), Salvatore Burruni**(twice), Bernardo Caraballo*, Risto Luukkonen, Felix Said Brami, Alan Rudkin*, Tommaso Galli, Jesus Pimentel*, Chartchai Choinoi**, Franco Zurlo,
Drew with: Risto Luukkonen, Tanny Campo, Aristide Pozzali, Piero Rollo,
**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title
* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title
Mimoun Ben Ali’s Story
He was born in the small town of Farhana close to Melilla an autonomous city of Spain on the North West Coast of Africa. Born deaf Ben Ali worked as a waiter and was introduced to boxing by his older brother Bussian. He boxed as an amateur in Melilla starting at the age of 16 but details of his early fights are scarce. He has been credited from one source as having an 11-2 record and another with 20 fights and he did win the local flyweight title. He had his first professional fight in Melilla 15 October 1955 at the age of 17 and then moved to Barcelona to continue his career. He struggled early against more experienced and more mature fighters losing twice against future Spanish bantamweight champion Francisco Carreno and having a 9-3-1 record. He had his first ten round fight in Italy in October 1957 drawing with Aristede Pozzali and then outpointed Christian Marchand in Paris in February 1958 and German Edgar Basel in Germany. He took a huge step up in the standard of his opposition when he took on former bantamweight world champion Mario D’Agata in Sardinia in September 1958 and lost on points. This may have been a unique fight as both Ben Ali and D’Agata were deaf.
Going into 1959 he was now 20 and had a 21-4-6 record. He spread his wings in 1959 beating Pentii Hamalainen in Finland, Michel Lamora in Casablanca, drew with Risto Lukkonen in Finland then beat world rated Ramon Arias in Caracas. He started 1960 with victories over Kamara Diop and useful Italian Mario Sitri in Rome. August 1960 saw him outpoint Jose Torres to win the Spanish bantamweight title.
In 1961 he headed back to Caracas where he lost to Arias and beat Nelson Estrada; He lost his Spanish title to Francisco Osuna on a disqualification on 7 December but won the title
back by decisioning Osuna just two weeks later. He had a tough year in 1962 but now almost every fight was against big name opponents. He lost consecutive fights to Arias in Caracas, beat Osuna in a Spanish title defences, then lost to Salvatore Buruni for the European flyweight title in Italy and Marcel Juban in Manilla.
He started 1963 with a loss to unbeaten Colombian Bernard Caraballo but in July won his first major title beating Pierro Rollo on points to win the European bantamweight title only to lose it to Risto Luukkonen in December. He won the now vacant European title in February 1965 by decisioning Pierre Vetroff but later in the year was defeated by Alan Rudkin in a non-title fight and in August by Tommaso Galli for the title. Ben Ali needed to turn things around and he did winning his next 17 fights and handing unbeaten Galli his first loss in a return match to regain the European title then defending it in a revenge win over Alan Rudkin in February 19677. He had reached No 2 in the Ring Magazine ratings and 1967 was a mad year as he had to take risks to try and land a title shot and in the end he crashed and burned. He had nine fights and won six. One loss was a disqualification in a domestic fight but in July he was stopped in nine rounds by Jesus Pimental in San Antonio and in December was knocked out in four rounds by Chartchai Chionoi. He had one last throw of the dice defending the European tittle against former world champion Salvatore Burruni in January 1968. He went 7-0-1 in some non-threatening fights but retired after losing on points to Franco Zurlo for the vacant European title in December 1969.
He had three spells as European bantamweight champion and two as Spanish bantamweight champion and also challenged for the European flyweight title. He only lost by KO /TKO twice against Jesus Pimentel and Chartchai Chionoi. As well as Spain he also fought in Colombia, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Morrocco, Philippines, Thailand, USA, and Venezuela. He was rated in the top ten bantamweights by Ring Magazine from 1958 to 1967 and was No 2 in 1960, 1961 and 1966 but was never given a chance to fight for a world title.
After retiring he and his wife had a successful shoe business in Barcelona’s central Passeig de Gracia a luxury shopping avenue.