By Jessie Desvarieux

Laila Ali not only inherited her boxing skills and charisma from her father, heavyweight champion Mohammad Ali, but also his fighting spirit both in and out of the ring. Taking her father’s legendary “fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee” approach, Laila is hoping to build up a following in women’s boxing in the same way her dad did when he put on one of the greatest shows in the world inside the boxing ring.

But this Ali’s fight for prime time is a lot different than her father’s. With men’s boxing a multi-billion dollar business, women stand to earn only a fraction of that, and sponsorships for women are few and far between. Clearly Ali has an uphill fight to put women front and center in the ring of the public’s attention. “With boxing, it’s not about being a woman,” said Ali. “It’s about how many tickets you can sell. If I can sell as many tickets as Mike Tyson I would get paid as much as Mike Tyson. I think that it’s going to take time, and I think that with me being in the sport, just by my last name being so popular I’ve really been able to make a difference in making it more of a household sport. But, Ali admitted, it’s going to take more than just her to bring a larger audience to the sport.

Ali, who holds the title as Super Middleweight champion, is considered a poster girl in women’s boxing along with Lucia Rijker and Christy Martin and a few others. Ali decided to take up the sport because, “boxing was in my blood,” she said. “[My dad] didn’t have a role in my decision other than the gifts that I was born with,” said Ali. “It was something that I decided on my own and his input didn’t really matter to me.” It was hard for the elder Ali to accept the fact that his daughter was following in his footsteps. “What parent wants their child to get hurt?” said Laila. “He would rather me not box, but he’s accepted it. When I first started boxing I had never mentioned to him that I was interested in the sport. It was totally new and so it was a surprise for him and he reacted the same way I would react if one of my kids said they wanted to box. It’s a dangerous sport.” But Ali senior has come around and given his daughter advice like, “Act like there’s a fly on the heavy bag and you want to hit it before it flies away,” Laila said. “That’s how he explains how to have a fast jab.”

Women boxers conjure up images of cat-fights or a slugfest, but Ali says if it’s done professionally, it’s neither. “Boxing is the most demanding sport and boxers are the most fit athletes in the world,” Ali said. “A lot of people work hard, train hard but still don’t have the natural talent. There are only a few that can really outshine everyone else and you have to really make sure that you take care of yourself and your career and have people around you who care about you. It’s a cut throat business.”

To best exemplify what she refers to as the “sweet science” of skilled boxing, Ali must maintain a brick house physique. “I work out, work out, work out,” she says. Ali runs and trains in the gym daily and weight trains four times a week. All of this preparation gives her the tools she needs - sharp eyes and quick hands. “There’s defense and offense, you have got to see the sink in the ring,” she says. “Boxing is 50% mental and seeing what the other person is doing and you have to win the fight before you go in there.”

Ali’s much anticipated fight on the undercard of the Lennox Lewis - Vitali Klitschko Heavyweight Title Fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last June gave her a large audience. Her victory over Valerie Mahfood by technical knockout in the sixth round gave Ali another victory to add to her three title belts, the IBA (International Boxing Association), the WIBF (Women’s International Boxing Federation), the IWBF (International Women’s Boxing Federation) Super Middle Weight titles as well as two black eyes. “That doesn’t bother me,” said Ali. “It’s all a part of the game.”

Laila’s ruthless determination has propelled her to a 15-0 record (12 knockouts) and a spot at the top of women’s boxing. Ali is quick to admit that many of her fights have been mismatches due to the relatively amateurish level of skill of some of her opponents. “Women’s boxing has a range of talent,” she said. “You have women who get in there and look like they have never trained a day in their life and they swing wild. Then you have real skilled fighters and there aren’t as many skilled women as there are skilled men so sometimes you get the real skilled fighting and sometimes you get people who can’t fight at all and it looks bad.”

Ross Greenberg, President of HBO Sports, believes that women have a tough road in putting boxing on the map. “We are in the initial stages of the sport and the depth is not quite there yet,” he said. “Laila, Christy Martin and Lucia Rjker have had the opportunity to be trained by veteran trainers so that they know the sport. Laila has that God-given Ali charisma which is also very important. She will definitely make her mark. It’s just, unfortunately for her, she’s living through a time when she’s going to have to spearhead this and because it’s in its infancy she’s not going to be able to capitalize on it like she most certainly could 20 years down the road.”

Boxing is a new sport but perhaps the increasing popularity of women’s kickboxing will help give the sport a leg up and open up possibilities for more talented women to get into the ring or take an interest in watching women’s boxing. Ali awakened some of this interest on August 23 before 9,888 screaming spectators in Biloxi, Miss., when she overpowered Christy Martin with a fourth-round knockout to retain her IBA super middleweight title and improve her record to 16-0. Billed as the biggest fight in the history of women’s boxing, Ali proved that she was alone at the top of the sport.

Ali is very optimistic about the future of women’s boxing. “The more talented you are, people will want to watch you.” Ali noted that in time, talented boxers with star quality and proper exposure will begin to change people’s perception of women’s boxing. Exposure, however, is the key component in raising awareness and popularity in women’s sports. “Especially in women’s boxing,” said Ali. “You have to expose us so that people can make up their minds whether they want to be a fan of it or not.” To take women’s boxing to the next level, Ali said it is imperative that matches be televised on HBO and Showtime. “If you can’t make it to the arena then you are not going to be able to see it unless it’s on TV.”

Greenberg is waiting and watching. “We need to see the development of the sport much the way that the WNBA has become a very legitimate league and the WUSA is legitimate,” he said. “But we need for boxing to create more and more opportunities for women so that you have a number of great athletes and boxers in the ring.”