Keyword
BOXING
Champions
Schedule
SPORT SECTIONS
Friday, March 2
 
Ali, Frazier daughters remain unbeaten

Associated Press

VERONA, N.Y. -- Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, together for the first time on the same fight card, scored separate knockouts to remain undefeated Friday night.

Both daughters of former world heavyweight champions, they used the event as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of their famous fathers' first fight, which was held on March 8, 1971.

Friday's seven-bout event, billed as a "March to Destiny," was broadcast around the world in English, Portuguese and Spanish. A crowd of over 1,700 watched the middleweight rivals use their fights as a buildup to a much anticipated head-to-head encounter in June.

In their post-fight press conference, Ali said Frazier-Lyde was doing the most talking, "so you know she's going to get the most whooping. I want someone to go home with a tattoo on their face so they know they were whooped by Laila Ali."

Added Frazier-Lyde: "What (Ali) means is she's going to run. Laila Ali is going to run just like Muhammad Ali ran from Joe Frazier."

Laila Ali took exception to the comment.

"This is about me and you," Ali screamed. "Every time you say something like that, it's going to add to your whooping."

Ali (9-0, 8 KOs), with her husband and manager ex-light heavyweight Johnny McClain ringside, needed five rounds to stop Christine Robinson (2-5, 1 KO), out of Lexington, S.C.

At 1:50 of the fifth round, Ali ended the fight with a barrage of rights and a left uppercut.

Robinson, who once extended boxer Christie Martin to five rounds, could not avoid Ali's right, but was able to absorb it through the first two rounds.

In the third, Robinson landed a few rights of her own. Ali turned more aggressive and started leading with a left jab, with the right cocked, looking for an opening.

In the fourth, Robinson matched the Los Angeles native punch for punch.

But with the crowd chanting "Ali, Ali," the champion's daughter backed Robinson into a corner in the fifth. She threw a dozen rights, some over, some under. A left upper cut lifted Robinson off the canvas and put her down for the count.

In a short fight, Frazier-Lyde (7-0, 7 KOs) flailed her way to knockout at 1:05 of the first round. She knocked down Genevia Buckhalter (2-8, 2 KOs) of Columbus, Miss., twice, the first time with two solid lefts to the chin. The second time, Buckhalter caught another haymaker to the head. Frazier-Lyde had to push the dazed opponent off her as she fell to the canvas.

Frazier-Lyde, a lawyer, wife and mother of three, with her husband and manager Peter Lyde ringside, had entered the square circle to her own theme song, "Sister Smoke She Ain't No Joke." She was barely touched in just a minute of boxing.

The card also featured NABF Lightweight Champion "Mighty" Ivan Robinson (30-5-1, 12 KOs) of Philadelphia in a scheduled 10-round welterweight fight against Alric Johnson (19-10, 10 KOs) of Trinidad.

Robinson was awarded a technical knockout before the start of the ninth round. Johnson retired due to a closed right eye.

Robinson used a left jab almost exclusively in the early rounds. In the fifth, he began using a left-right combination, causing Johnson to duck and cover. In the seventh Robinson returned to jabbing Johnson's head with the left, followed by a roundhouse right causing the eye to start swelling.

In a scheduled six-round junior middleweight bout, Andrey Trunov (6-0, 4 KOs) from Sybria, Russia, defeated Donnell Ponton (8-6-1, 4 KOs), of Philadelphia on a TKO when Ponton couldn't answer the bell at the start of the fourth round do to cramping.




 ESPN Tools
Email story
 
Most sent
 
Print story