Ali and Martin: Keep It Real

Bernie McCoy

05.07 - Frank Leahy, the great Notre Dame football coach, once said, "Egotisim is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity". This week's silliness at the Biloxi, MS press confererence for the August 23 Laila Ali/Christy Martin bout may not have been totally stupid, but it was close enough to make the evening news, and maybe that was the point.

Putting Ali and Martin in a room with one microphone is tantamount to putting Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie in a room with one trumpet. Both women have egos equalling or exceeding their ample skill in the ring; both are used to being the center of attraction at press conferences; both are used to throwing "punch lines" at their future opponents and expecting none in return. Thus it came as no shock that the Ali and Martin "dialogue" deteriorated into what most of the tabloid press headlined as a "catfight" and featured, not on the sports pages, but in the section devoted to the "if it bleeds, it leads" stories.

The polite word for both women's attitude is "amour-propre", literally "love of self". Another, more well-worn "street phrase" is "cocky". In that regard, however, it may be worth heeding another adage, "Its not really being cocky, if you've done it".

It can be validly argued that Christy Martin, as far a Women's boxing is concerned, has "done it". Her current record is 44-2-2 with 31 KOs over a career that has covered almost 14 years. For many of those years, she was the best known female fighter in the world and, at the same time, considered by many, to be the top distaff fighter. Those days have past and Martin is clearly on the backside of her career. In compiling her first 37 wins, Christy accumulated 30 knockouts; in her last seven bouts, over a period of three years, she has one knockout, and that over an overmatched and undertrained Sabrina Hall in one round in Las Vegas in December 2000. Martin's last bout was an almost unwatchable ten rounds with the "Anna Kournikova of Women's boxing", Mia St John, in December. Showing up dreadfully out of shape, Martin tried for a quick KO, which St John managed to avoid with three rounds full retreat. Failing to gain an early stoppage, Martin "mailed in" the last seven rounds, winning a decision. In the Spring, Christy appeared in an exhibition match in Iowa. That has constituted her recent ring activity.

Ali, on the other hand, has remained active. Over the same period in which Martin's only bout was with St John, Ali has climbed into the ring three times. Its the opposition that gives one pause. Two of Ali's bouts were with Valerie Mahfood, a tough, but undersized, middleweight who Ali was easily able to keep on the end of her jab in both fights, which were stopped in the eighth and sixth rounds, respectively. These bouts were bookended around a bout with Mary Ann Almager who was coaxed out of retirement to fight Ali in Louisville in February and ended up, not surprisingly, imitating a heavy bag for four rounds before the bout was stopped. In point of fact, the quality of Ali's opposition, throughout her career, thus far, has been, to put it kindly, underwhelming. Aside from the much ballyhooed bout with Jacqui Frazier, which was, for the most part, a desulatory eight rounds, notable mainly because it exceeded the low expections of the boxing ability of these two "famous daughters", most of Ali's opponents were either unknown, untalented or overmatched. In fact, the press release for the August 23 bout notes that Ali "captured her first title in a second round TKO of Suzy Taylor last summer". What is conveniently ommitted from this recount is that this was Taylor's fifth straight loss.

Thus are we to look at the August 23 bout as a meeting, as the press release would have it, of "the two true icons of the sport". Not quite. Martin, at one point, was indeed, the "face" of Women's boxing. She is, at this point, somewhat below icon status. Sumya Anani, who beat Martin in December '98 is currently above her in skill level and Lucia Rijker, who returned to the ring with a decision over Jane Couch last month, and who Martin has studiously avoided for many years, is thought to be a better fighter than Martin. As for Ali, while, the quality of opposition at her weight level is not near that of Martin's lighter weight class, it should be noted, to date, Ali has managed to avoid stepping into the ring with Ann Wolfe, who many give at least a "punchers chance" against Laila.

Thus in reality what we have on August 23 is a match involving two well known female fighters, maybe the best known in their sport. Icons, hardly; quality fighters, certainly. Both women, one on the rise in the boxing ring, the other with an already established legacy in the same arena, have a geat deal to gain from a successful, exciting boxing match on August 23. Ali has other vistas in the ring that she has yet to ascend; Martin is on the threshold of beginning to leave behind a career, well remembered. Ten rounds of great boxing in August on the Gulf Coast is the way to do both, rolling around on a stage in Biloxi, MS is not.