Ali packs a powerful punch

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

She's the face of women's boxing. The torchbearer. The focal point.

Ask anyone among the general population to identify a female fighter and there's a good chance the only name that will come to mind is Laila Ali.

In part because of her many abilities as well as her charisma, and in part because of the failures of her counterparts, Ali, it can be said, is women's boxing in 2002.

Fortunately, she's comfortable in the role and understands how it came to happen.

"Being Muhammad Ali's daughter has something to do with it," she said this week before working out at the Absoloot Boxing & Fitness Gym. "The name 'Ali' is very powerful and it's a real big boost for me.

"I've helped women's boxing a whole lot and I will say I have the most recognizable name out there today. I remind people of my father."

The daughter of the former heavyweight champion and Veronica Porsche, Laila Ali was born 24 years ago in Miami while her father was preparing for a fight. She was raised in Los Angeles and lives in Las Vegas along with her husband, promoter Johnny McClain.

She's headlining a Saturday card at the Aladdin that will be promoted by McClain, himself a former fighter.

"Not many women have Laila's star quality," McClain said. "But she's not just a star because of who her father is. It's the whole package ... the way she carries herself, the way she dresses and looks, and the way she speaks.

"There are plenty of women who can fight, but she's the one who appeals to the public."

Ali is 11-0 with eight knockouts and a year removed from her most famous battle, an eight-round majority decision over Jacqui Frazier-Lyde. That bitter fight, in Verona, N.Y., drew a crowd of 6,500 and a pay-per-view audience of approximately 100,000 as it matched daughters of former heavyweight champions.

Saturday's fight is also on pay-per-view, although Ali's opponent, Suzy Taylor, has only marginal credentials. She's 10-6-1 and with a reputation for canning trainers and ignoring the generally accepted rules of training.

"All of those things -- that she doesn't train and that she smokes two packs of cigarettes a day -- don't matter," McClain said, covering for Taylor as any promoter would. "Once she gets in the ring, she becomes a fighter."

But Ali doesn't sound too concerned about the 10-round bout at 168 pounds.

"For this fight Suzy supposedly has stopped smoking and is in the best shape of her life," Ali said. "But she's weak-minded, and I'm totally the opposite. I've got mental and physical advantages.

"When she goes back to her corner (after a round) and they tell her she can do it, I'll be there to talk some trash and tell her she can't when we come back out."

Promoting a fight involving Ali against an opponent of limited tools presents difficulties that Ali and McClain have attempted to cover.

"We always talk about what we can do to promote the girl I'm fighting," Ali said, "but it's hard to build someone like that up. I can go on TV and do radio interviews and things like this, but the interviewers aren't interested in doing anything on her.

"We try to make it look like it'll be a real hard fight for me ... which, in this case, it's not."

She laughs at the admission, adding that she could have beaten Taylor earlier in her career and even before developing into a competent fighter with ever-increasing skills. Despite having no amateur fights, Ali has the look and drive of a top-flight boxer.

Given her late entry into the sport, the question is only natural: How much of what Laila can do in the ring is the result of her father, or of simple genetics?

"Boxing definitely comes easy to me, so there's something to that," she said. "But I've always pushed myself in whatever I've done. When I was 18 years old and in school I opened a nail salon, and when I did nails I was the best there was.

"Same thing now with boxing. I'll make the sacrifices it takes and put in the time and be willing to do all the work it takes to be the very best."

But she doesn't intend to stay in the game too long.

"In a couple of years, I'll be done," she said. "I'm the type of person that once I'm tired of something, I've got to move on.

"I'll be getting to that point soon with boxing. Maybe two years."

In the meantime, the push is on to not only personally capitalize but to help her sport's growth.

"What I'm hoping to do is ride the wave Laila is creating, and, through her, get people to accept women's boxing," McClain said. "She's the one the public sees right now, but someday I think women's boxing will be accepted by the masses."

Ali, who has a published autobiography and has been on the cover of TV Guide and profiled in a number of magazines, takes an optimistic view of the sport, even if Christy Martin is in decline, Lucia Rijker has all but vanished, and the daughters of Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran and George Foreman have all tried to fight while largely failing.

"I think women's boxing will continue to grow, slowly," Ali said. "There will always be certain names that stand out, like mine does now, and there will always be others who are just as serious about it as I am.

"But when I'm gone, I'll be gone. It'll be 'OK, girls, let's see what you can do now.' "