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CHANTED
As if it were 1973 again, "Ali! Ali! Ali!" by a crowd of
9,888 in Biloxi, Miss., last Saturday. What had been billed as
the biggest bout in the short history of women's boxing turned
out to be a classic Ms.-match. A decade younger and with a 5
1/2-inch edge in reach, Laila Ali knocked out prizefighting
pioneer Christy Martin in the fourth round to retain her IBA
super middleweight title and run her record to 16-0.

Though she had fought only once in the previous 21 months, the
35-year-old Martin claimed to have trained hard for Ali. "It
ticks me off that she rode her father's coattails to get a fight
with me," Martin said before the bout. Countered the champ,
"Christy has anger-management problems. She's just a white hope.
I'll whup her like she was my daughter." Good golly, Miss Ali!

The whupping was worth $250,000 to the Greatest's daughter, who
plans to fight a few more times, then retire. "I am women's
boxing," Ali said. "Most women don't appreciate what I've
accomplished. They will when I'm gone." --Franz Lidz

COLOR PHOTO: CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES (ALI) ALIGARCHY Like her dad, Laila (left) promised a whupping, thendealt one.