Fight Night! 24 Hours In Monaco With Boxing Champion Ramla Ali

The day of the fight, I wore my custom Daily Paper tracksuit. I know one of the founders, Hussein Suleiman, so I asked if he was interested in collaborating with me. We were both excited to work with a fellow Somali. It's a brand I've loved for such a long time. I love that the three African founders are doing incredible things in the fashion world.

This picture was taken on the way to the casino for the fight, and the red seats are very fitting because I'd just started my period, and didn't have any sanitary products with me. I didn't care: we went to the venue and I just raw-dogged it. I'm an athlete, I'd just spent three hard months training for this fight and I wasn't going to let it hold me back from achieving my goals.

Women athletes face so many obstacles, from pay disparity to fighting to be promoted and broadcasted on TV. This is yet another thing we have to go through, and it did affect me, I had really slow start, less energy. But I put it to the back of my mind and soldiered on through the fight.

This is a a cool photo. I like to sit down and try to visualize the fight, before the fight. Sit down, relax, think about what I wanted to do with the game plan. It was a nice moment that I had to myself; the calm before the storm.

You can see in my eyes how tired I am. I hadn't slept the night before. To perform as an athlete, you need sleep. As I was getting my handwraps put on, I tried to zone out any fears and doubts. I'd had some coffee, my coaches put ice on my head to wake me up a bit. I was pacing up and down the hall when one of the other boxers' brother saw how anxious I was. He put my hands in his and we prayed together. It was a really beautiful moment.

The changing room was in the basement, so I had to get a lift up to the ring. It kept breaking down! I'd watched Gladiator the week before. There's a moment in that film when they're just about to go out into the Coliseum... that's what it felt like being in that lift. You can hear things going on outside, you can hear people in the venue, but everyone in the lift is silent. It's very eerie.

I did my ring walk to a song called 'Invicible' by Stromae, an artist I met at the Met Gala. As soon as the beat dropped, I walked out. I felt amazing.

This is the second kit Maria Grazia Chiuri has designed for me. I didn't really give her any direction, I just allowed her to be her creative self. The only thing I asked was that there be a Panther included in the kit, which is a symbol I have used since the start of my professional journey. She chose the colours, she chose the fit of the shorts. I felt so powerful in that kit.

Throughout my career, I've learned that if at any point you start to feel nervous, focus on your breathing. Five seconds in, five seconds out, and it should help you calm down. That's what I'm doing here.

I had a slow start because of my period. It took me a while to wake up my body, but after that, it was plain sailing. I managed to stay poised and composed throughout, sticking to the game plan. I made sure I was completely disciplined throughout the fight.

Before the fight, I was complaining about the lack of sleep and Manny from my team said, look, this has all happened for a reason. God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. He does not put you in situations that you can't handle. I think that's what I was feeling the moment this was taken: I was thinking about all the obstacles I had to overcome to get to this point. I was so happy.

This was a very emotional moment, because I couldn't have done it without my coach Edgar Jasso. He's lifting me up here, which is exactly what he did throughout my three month training camp.

Edgar isn't the head coach, but without him, I wouldn't have made it to Monaco. Throughout the whole camp, I was very emotional because of what happened in June. Lifting myself back up, putting myself straight back into a rematch meant I had to face a lot of demons. In the last fight, I'd hit the back of the head. Anytime that would happen in sparring accidentally, it would give me PTSD, so much so that I actually developed alopecia from the stress.

One day, I sat down with Edgar and told him everything that was going on, all the anxiety. He said, 'Ramla, you've got 'cojones' (meaning balls in Spanish). You're a bad bitch, and from now on, we're going to be positive with everything we do.' It really built my confidence back up.

A lot of hard work went into winning the fight and getting the belt I'm holding here. It was the worst three months of my life, mentally speaking, it was such a roller coaster of up's and down's. You can see the bruise on my forehead, I look like an alien, but honestly, I couldn't have been more elated to win.