LAILA ALI - SHE MUST BE THE GREATEST

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

(IB – August 23, 2003) – Like father, like daughter! Imagine that… Laila Ali, now (16-0, 13KOs), re-affirmed for us that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. On this night, she showed true greatness that was very resembling of her infamous father Muhammad Ali, who by the way, was on hand in the crowd to support his daughter. There were approximately 10,000 fans on hand at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi and this bout was televised on Pay-Per-View.

Granted, a lot of experts, as well as even the casual boxing fans, felt that most likely Laila Ali was going to be too much for Christy Martin (45-3-2, 31 KOs) in this IBA Super Middleweight title fight. However, I’m not so sure folks thought it would be that simple of a night for Ali. This fight turned out just as Laila had previously predicted it would be, a BEAT DOWN!

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Christy was a very game and skilled opponent. Martin came into this fight with a plan; be aggressive and get inside of Ali’s reach.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Martin to feel the power and thrust behind the Ali right hand and it became very oblivious early on, we were about to watch a BEAT DOWN. Each round became more and more dominant by Laila Ali who sent Christy Martin to the canvas mid way through the 3rd round with a flurry of punches. While Martin was able to wobble her way out of that round, the 4th round picked right back up from the 3rd and 40 seconds into this round, ended the night, and probably the boxing future for Christy Martin. Christy is credited for bringing female boxing to lime light with some of her very entertaining fights as part of the under card on previous Tyson fights. There is a new Queen now, and its Laila Ali.

What I found to be most impressive was the technique behind the delivery of Ali’s punches. The lefts and rights that were thrown by Ali were not your stereotypical windmill form of punches that is often demonstrated by some of the female class of boxers. This remarkable female athlete has developed true boxing technique with the power to back it up. Hence, she must be the greatest!

The unknown though is, where does Ali goes from here? In regards to competition, the Christy Martin fight was suppose to at least provide us with indications of how Laila could take a punch, or how would she hold up to the pressure of someone punching her back? We didn’t receive any of these answers tonight, and may not be receiving them anytime soon either.

I cannot think of any female boxer out there that can withstand this type of precision punching and hand speed.

If she keeps this up, she will have to agree to a “battle of the sexes” bout against some of the men if its competition that she is seeking.

Congratulations Laila Ali, You Go Girl!

You have just gone InsideBoxing.com

Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com