There are numerous similarities between Muhammad Ali and his 23-year-old daughter Laila. She is the only one of his nine sons and daughters to have those genes that led to the ring  . Her father's great status had nothing to do with Laila's decision to pursue a boxing career. She has always been proud of his achievements, but he was never a great man to her ---- just dad. What attracted her to take up boxing was the unusual sight of two women in the ring on the television screen when she was about to watch a Mike Tyson fight five years ago. She was very excited and said to herself, "I can do that." Laila's father would prefer her not to take up the dangerous sport. Johnny McClain, her husband and manager (former boxer himself) feels the same way. Even though both the men in her life worry about her, they're 100 percent supportive. "They don't want me to get hurt," she says. Long before entering the ring, Laila was a fighter. Being the daughter of an outstanding boxer made her an easy target for high school kids to see how tough she was. They, not she, failed in the test. For the public, her biggest test took place last summer in the New York State when she took on Jacqui Frazier Lyde, the daughter of Joe Frazier, her father's most famous opponent   during the 1970s.  _ . News reporters poured in. Some called it "Ali/Frazier - Generation II". No match involving women had ever attracted so much attention. Laila had a narrow victory in the fight. Like it or not, she accepts the fact that she is the face of female boxing. And she hopes that her name and fame will help get the public to take it more seriously. The name Ali has and always will bring her attention. But she is determined to make her own mark on opponents' faces as well as in boxing history books. She says, "I want women's boxing to get its due respect." Laila took up boxing because of   _  .
her father's great status a Mike Tyson fight her admiration for her father her interest in boxing