Boxing-Ali in the Garden, 35 years after epic clash

NEW YORK, Nov 9: Muhammad Ali returns to Madison Square Garden Bon Saturday, 35 years after his epochal bout against ''Smokin''' Joe Frazier, this time to watch his daughter fight for a title in the ring.

Laila Ali, 28, makes her Garden debut in a defense of her world super-middleweight crown.

It is seven years since she launched a fight career built on a magical boxing name. Now the independent-minded Californian is tired of wearing the mantle of boxing royalty.

Long, lean and powerful, a confused Laila Ali said she was excited about her first fight at the Garden, but not because of her father's association with the arena.

''It's not really because of my dad's history so much. It's more so just because it's the Garden,'' she told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

''Just because I'm fighting somewhere he fought ... a lot of great fighters have fought here. I'm not really a Muhammad Ali fan, you know?'' That would put her in the minority when she takes the ring against unheralded challenger Shelley Burton.

Garden fight fans will sense echoes of 1971 when undefeated Ali, stripped of his title after refusing to serve in the US military during the Vietnam War, returned to the ring to meet unbeaten Frazier, who ascended to the throne in his absence.

The two waged a classic 15-rounder, which Frazier won by decision in the first of three duels between the champions.

''I'm not saying I'm against him, I'm just saying I'm his daughter,'' she said. ''It's different.'' Laila, the second youngest of Ali's nine children, is the younger of his two daughters with his third wife, Veronica. She lived with her mother after their divorce when she was eight.

''We were close when we lived together. But my parents got divorced. You know how that is. Your parents live in two different states.

''I've always been a mommy's girl, not a daddy's girl.'' She has won all 22 of her fights, 19 within the distance, and thinks she should have won respect for herself.

TITLE DEFENSE

Famed trainer Emanuel Steward, who prepared Vladimir Klitschko for his IBF heavyweight title defense on the card against American Calvin Brock, said Laila won him over. ''When she got into boxing I didn't take her serious. Like most people, I thought she was just living off her daddy's name,'' Steward told a news conference.

''I personally have had the experience of seeing her in the gym training in California and also seeing her train in my Kronk Gym in Detroit and I can say without hesitation that she is one of the hardest working people I ever saw in the gym.

''She has made her reputation off her own work, not off of her daddy's name. I have a lot of respect for Laila.'' She was 18, taking business courses at junior college and running a nail salon when she saw a women's fight on TV.

''I didn't know it existed until I saw it and I immediately had an interest in it,'' she said as she applied polish to her nails.

''It took about a year to actually get up the nerve to go and try it.

''I started to go to the gym to see if I had any talent, which I did. Then I decided I wanted to box.'' The 5-foot-10, 168-pound Ali is not the master of defense her father was.

''I am an aggressive boxer-puncher,'' she said. ''I wouldn't compare my defense with my father's. But mostly because I'm the aggressor they don't get the chance to jump on me.

''The main thing that we have in common as far as boxing is concerned is our confidence. And that's so big.

''It's not even a question to me that I'm going to win. For me it's just performing, playing out what I want see in my head, how I want to fight.''

PHYSICAL SIMILARITIES

She admitted to some physical similarities.

''We're built alike. Most fighters that have long legs, long arms are going to box a certain way. You see a little bit of him in there but it's not on purpose.'' Laila does not have her father's flair. ''I'm not a showman. I don't say things to be funny, I don't say things to entertain people. I just say how I feel, what's on my mind.'' For all the distance she tries to put between herself and ''The Greatest,'' Laila Ali appreciates the affection and admiration lavished on her father.

''People love my dad. My dad has just touched so many people. And aside from boxing. Just who he is as a person, a man standing up for what he believes in and not caring what anybody felt.

''People have to respect that and love that. You don't have to agree with his personal beliefs or any of that. Most people are just not like that these days.''

REUTERS