Madame Butterfly

When I think about Laila Ali, I think of fast speed. She has fast speed in punching. Some people call her "Madame Butterfly", and some people call her “She Bee Stinging”. Because of those two names, to me, Laila has insector speed. Like her father, she floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. The bumble bee and the butterfly are one in Laila Ali. She has the power to sting and the power to float. Look at what she has become. Her father was the greatest in his way, and Laila is the greatest in her way.

When I think about the speed of Laila, I can imagine her with speed bags from one end of the gym to the other. I can imagine her moving down the line hitting them all in a certain length of time.

People have all kinds of compliments about Laila’s way of boxing. I have seen Laila’s opponents hitting her, and Laila was very unstoppable. She has strong will power. It seems she feels no pain. She has something she calls the beat down. In the beat down, she is very fast with her punches; hitting her opponent as often as possible, and she doesn’t get hit. Laila can hit her opponents so fast and so hard, all they can do is fall down. Some of them try to turn away from her. They do not stand a chance in hitting back after a while. Laila doesn’t play around. Her timing is perfect in beating them down. I think Laila is finding herself in boxing. That’s why she boxes different from her legendary father or anybody else. Laila has her own way, and I have seen no other woman in the ring fighting the way Laila can. If she keeps on boxing, it’s possible that she might bring something more and new to boxing. No one could touch her father, Muhammad Ali, shuffling around the ring. No one can do the shuffle the way he can. No one can touch Laila with her beat down. She’ll step right up to you, take your punches and not feel a thing. Already, Laila is too much for her opponents.

May 2009
Gail Nobles