Laila Ali cannot stress enough that she doesn’t need to box again.
Her business ventures and career as a talk show host have helped build a strong financial future for her family. Ali also is married to former NFL wide receiver Curtis Conway, with whom she has two children.
Nevertheless, Ali is intrigued by the idea of facing Claressa Shields in what would be the biggest pay-per-view event in the history of women’s boxing. Muhammad Ali’s daughter also admits that her competitive spirit has been awakened by what she feels have been disrespectful comments made by Shields.
Ali is 42 years old and hasn’t boxed since February 2007, but she is sure she could defeat Shields, a 25-year-old three-division champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Ali discussed possibly boxing Shields during a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Ak and Barak Show.”
“The thing is that, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, that I’m definitely interested to fight her,” Ali said. “And the deal just has to be right. There’s been a lot of he say, she say, and at the end of the day there has not been any real, serious conversations about anything happening. And then, of course, with all that’s going on, you know, that’s not what my focus is right now. We have a global crisis going on. So, what I don’t wanna do is be talking about that, keeping chatter and noise going, when it’s not happening any time soon, even if it does happen. Because there’s more serious things to talk about. So, that situation is what it is right now.”
Shields has stated that Ali has requested a $5 million guarantee to fight her.
“I’m in control of that situation, trust and believe,” Ali said. “So, when we wanna promote, we start talking about it. You know, I say something, she says a million things. She does all the work, which is great because I don’t have time to do it. So, I have the situation under control right now. You know what I mean? We put a muzzle on her for a minute, and we’ll see what happens.”
While nothing can happen until they develop a better understanding of a post-pandemic American economy, Ali realizes she would have to face the significantly younger Shields as soon as possible.
“I’m getting older,” Ali said. “I’m not getting younger. So, I’m not trying to have no comeback when I’m 45, OK? … That’s just obvious. I’m a very realistic person. I’m 42 years old. I’m not trying to, you know – listen, if it’s gonna happen, it needs to happen soon.”
Ali went 24-0, including 21 knockouts, from 1999-2007. She also won world titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight.
Ali revealed during the aforementioned interview that she weighed 189 pounds, though she hasn’t been training seriously. The weight at which they would fight isn’t clear, but Shields (10-0, 2 KOs) was supposed to battle Quebec’s Marie-Eve Dicaire (17-0, no KOs) for four 154-pound titles on Saturday night in Shields’ hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Shields, the WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion, previously was women’s boxing’s undisputed middleweight champion and the IBF/WBC super middleweight champ.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.