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Laila who? Oh,
Ali.....
Without saying "daughter of the legendary Muhammad Ali," no one
outside of women's boxing would have known her name. Unless you were
a client at her former beauty salon, or perhaps even a correctional
officer during her juvenile incarceration, the name Laila
Ali by itself won't ring any bells. But when you say it in
conjunction with her father's name, then it all seems to make sense.
Laila Ali is the second youngest child of the best "pound-
for-pound" professional boxer ever to enter the ring. Muhammad
Ali was in his day America's hero. More importantly, as the years
have passed, he has become America's legacy. We look at him now and
remember the man we saw with cat-like prowess fifteen years ago. We
look at him now and remember the "good ole' days."
In fact, it's with such nostalgia we remember him that we need to recreate
him. Of course, we can't turn back the hands of time. So what
does a sport in desperate need of salvation do? It creates it.
Boxing needed new life. It needed something to lift it above what it
was, which, unfortunately, was a seemly dying sport. A breath of
life had been blown into the lungs of the sport when women's boxing
exploded onto the scene with the 1996 pay-per-view fight of Christy
Martin verses Dierdre Gogarty. But that wasn't
enough. What boxing needed was a legend.
And so it came to be. Laila Ali, daughter of the legendary Muhammad
Ali, announced her intentions of becoming a professional fighter.
Long before her debut in October of 1999, the media began to exalt her.
Despite her having no prior amateur career or boxing background, save her
father's name, she made her first ringside appearance to a sell out crowd
of 3,000. The fight was reported in every media genre available.
Ali received a reported $25,000 for her first match against a woman with
only one other fight to her career--a bout, incidentally, in which the
woman, April Fowler, had been knocked out in the first round.
Neither woman had an inkling
of what to do in the ring, or what to expect. But really, what more
did we expect. After all, this was the sport of boxing. This
was the daughter of "The Greatest." It was legend in the
making.
But even so, no one truly expected Ali's daughter to come out of the
corner a polished fighter. We did, however, expect a decent fight.
Instead, the America public was subjected to a farce. Clearly,
Fowler, who lasted only 31 seconds, was hand-picked in order for Laila to
fulfill the Ali destiny.
Ali's next three fights all had the same taste to them. Weaker
women, without any real experience, simply jumped in the ring to lay down
and die. At 4-0, with 4 KO's, Ali stepped it up a notch. Not a
big notch, as she took on a 1-5 fighter named Karen
Bill. Even so, Bill was able to land Ali on the canvas early into
the second round.
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Bill knocks Laila down in 2nd round
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For the remainder of the second round, the two women exchanged blow for
blow. Ali was clearly losing the fight. Then, with Bill ahead
in the third round, the referee jumped in to stop the fight.
Prematurely, he awarded Ali the decision. The crowd booed fiercely
at the stoppage.
Realizing the gravity of a loss, Ali's team went back to the tried and
true. Laila was not ready to step up her competition. However,
she was still earning more per fight than most female boxers make their
entire careers. Indeed, Ali was a true marketing scheme, especially
when her father was in attendance.
Laila's next opponent was again a 1-0 fighter. She lacked experience
and physical conditioning. She was perfect for the part. It
was to no one's surprise that Ali won by knockout.
Using media momentum, Ali stepped back into the ring for her seventh
professional fight. This time it was against a 48-year-old
grandmother with two professional wins much, much earlier in her career.
Despite the obvious disparity between the two fighters, media coverage
stated that Ali would never be able to find a worthy opponent as there
existed no skilled women fighters in the heavier divisions, such as Super
Middle Weight.
Ali hasn't really done anything to earn this championship status that
everyone is giving her. She's had one half-way decent fight against
Karen Bill. She was put on her ass and the ref had to push the two
of them apart in order to stop the fight.
She didn't win that fight. But they gave her the win anyway because
of who she is--Muhammad Ali's daughter. She's been given hand-picked
opponents that her promoters and handlers know she can beat. She
won't take a fight with a legitimate boxer.
How can everybody in the media continue to say that she's the best in her
weight class when the media refuses to recognize even the champions in her
division? If this were men's sports, no one would give her that
title. She would have to fight and earn it. The media is not
even mentioning that there are other worthy fighters, let alone that a
true champion(s) already exists.
Now, to show how fair I can be
to Laila, I'll acknowledge that fight with Lenhart--after all, Kendra beat
me once at least two or three years ago--but that does nothing but prove
that it's time for her to step into the ring against...at least...the
better skilled contenders (although not necessarily championship material)
like Kathy Rivers.
So, here's my challenge, and
I'm going to state it REALLY clear so that Laila can hear it resound
through cyberspace:
"Laila Ali is a
no-fighting bum. She refuses to accept legitimate fights in order to
inflate her record and her ego. She has very little skill and
absolutely no chin. But what bores me the most is how she plays off
the media hype of her being 'world champion material.'
Ali can't fight. If she could, she would be stepping up her level of
competition by now. Instead, she continues to let her handlers feed
her bums. One of her last opponents was a 48-year-old grandmother
who'd been knocked out her last four times in the ring. How's that
ever going to prepare her to fight someone like me? Does she think
she's really that damn good to go from fighting these type of women to
fighting a three time world champion?
Let me assure her, she's not. The only reason I'd give her a second
thought is just to shut her up. She is degrading the sport of
women's boxing. She has no power in her punches. Hell, she
shuts her eyes when she throws a jab! What is that? That's a
mutt being paraded around like she's some kind of a show dog.
I tell you what, if Ali ever does gather the guts to crawl up in the ring
with me, she'll get a first round knock out all right. I don't have
the time or the patience to tolerate her little juvenile delinquent
attitude. Normally, I let my opponents go a few rounds so I don't
hurt their pride too much. But Ali, I don't have anything for her.
Big Bad Wolfe I'm going to drop her in the first with a body shot so hard
her daddy's going to feel it."
a.k.a.
Valerie "Phillip's kid" Mahfood |
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