Trailblazing Olympic refugee boxer Cindy Ngamba set for pro debut on all-female fight card in London

Something stood out to Cindy Ngamba as she glanced around when Friday's all-female boxing event was first announced.

So many world championship belts. Ngamba wants one of her own.

"I saw Natasha Jonas and Lauren Price and Caroline Dubois with their belts, and I remember saying `Oh, that looks nice, I would love to have one of them,'" she said.

Achieving goals is kind of Ngamba's thing. At the Paris Games, she became the first athlete competing as a refugee to earn a medal when she took bronze in the middleweight category.

A decade ago, the Cameroon—born Ngamba thought she was about to be deported from Britain. Now she's set to make her professional debut at Royal Albert Hall. She's facing veteran Kirstie Bavington in a super welterweight bout in London as part of an all-female card headlined by the Jonas vs. Price welterweight world title unification fight.

"I can see it, that dream of me having a belt and being the world champion," Ngamba told The Associated Press, "but at the same time you have to be in the present and you have to make sure you get the job done."

WATCH l Sportsmanship on display after Ngamba beats Canada's Thibeault at Paris 2024: 

Sportsmanship on full display from Canada's Tammara Thibeault to Refugee Olympic Team's Cindy Ngamba

The 26-year-old Ngamba tries not to think ahead too much. That's because she knows circumstances can change so quickly.

Ngamba had arrived in Britain at age 11 — her father and siblings live here, too — in Bolton, just north of Manchester, and set about learning English and trying to fit in. She picked up boxing at age 15, and it became an escape from the stress of worrying about her residency status.

She described being arrested as a teenager while checking in at an