Laila Ali Talking Like Dad

Laila Ali Predicts A Knock Out

(AP) 
Laila Ali is starting to sound like her father.

Muhammad Ali's daughter predicts she will knock out her opponent a 28-year-old accounting student when she fights for the second time as a professional boxer Wednesday night.

Laila Ali is not be as boisterous as the three-time heavyweight champion, and she dispenses with any taunts or glove pointing. But the 21-year-old woman speaks her mind, calmly and quietly.

"My goal is to win," Ali said. "I'm not saying my goal is to knock her out. I'm saying it's going to happen."

Her opponent, Shadina Pennybaker, who will make her pro debut in the four-round bout, isn't so sure.

"I'm not good at predicting the future," Pennybaker said. "I know one thing I can guarantee you. I'm not going to hit the canvas."

Pennybaker, who trains in the Pittsburgh area, was 2-1 as an amateur.

"In order to win, I know I'll have to knock her out or beat her half to death," she said.

Ali wouldn't say whether this fight at the Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Chester will end as quickly as her first one. That bout took all of 31 seconds, a knockout of April Fowler on Oct. 8 in Verona, N.Y.

Pennybaker was skeptical of Ali's debut.

"If you ask me, it was staged," she said. "I watched it twice. It was so quick, it just didn't look real to me. I think it was a publicity stunt. But time will tell."

As a child, Pennybaker idolized Muhammad Ali and dreamed of becoming a boxer.

"Watching him knock people out, that excites me," she said. "The art that he had and the way that he did it, it made me want to be a fighter. And the way he talks garbage, it's exciting."

Now the daughter is doing the talking.

"She talked some garbage in the newspaper," Pennybaker said. "That's basically what it is: garbage."

Ali remembers watching tapes of her father's bouts yet had little interest in his career. She didn't pay attention to boxing until three years ago when she found out women were fighting professionally.

"I wasn't interested because of my father. I took up boxing because I like to fight and I could make money doing it," Ali said.

She hasn't tried to mirror his techniques and strategies.

"My dad is my dad. I'm never going to be like him," she said. "It wouldn't be smart to fight like him. Boxing has changed. Women fight differently. It wouldn't make any sense."

A supportive but concerned Muhammad Ali attended Laila's debut. She's not sure if he'll be there Wednesday night.

"If you had a daughter, every fight, you would be concerned," she said. "I don't think he's ever going to be at ease with it. That doesn't mean he's not going to support me though."

Ali, 5-foot-10 and 166 pounds, recently sold her nail salon in Los Angeles. She said she isn't too concerned about whether he public will accept women's boxing.

"I've just got my eyes focused on a smaller picture, just doing what I'm doing," she said. "I'm so new to the sport."

If it does take off, Ali thinks she could help it happen.

"If I wasn't any good, I don't think people would care what my name was," she said. "Being a good fighter and being likeable and being what people want to see, I think, yeah, that's possible."