Microsoft FrontPage 4.0" name="GENERATOR" /> Laila Ali inherits her father's profession There are numerous similarities between Muhammad Ali and his 23-year-old daughter Laila．She accepts them as her genetic legacy．She is the only one of his nine sons and daughters to embrace those genes that led to the ring． 拳王阿里女兒繼承父業 穆罕默德·阿里和他23歲的女兒萊拉有許多相似之處。她把它們作爲與生俱來的財富接受了下來。在阿里的９個子女中，只有萊拉從"遺傳"中獲得了拳擊的基因。 Her father's legendary status actually had nothing to do with Laila's decision to pursue a boxing career．She knows that there are millions who know every single detail of every pro fight her father fought．She never immersed herself in that sort of trivia．She has always been proud of his achievements, but he was never a boxer or legend to her--just dad． What propelled her into the ring was thebizarre sight on the televison screen when she was about to watch a Mike Tyson fight five years ago．What she saw was two women in the ring before Tyson's main event began． 實際上，萊拉選擇拳擊生涯與父親傳奇般的地位毫無關係。她知道有數百萬人對她父親拳擊生涯的每個細節都耳熟能詳。她從來不沉湎於往日瑣事。她一直爲父親的成就感到自豪，但對她來說，阿里並非拳擊手或傳奇人物，而只是自己的父親。 ５年前電視上的奇異一幕，將她推向了拳擊臺。當時她正準備觀看麥克·泰森的一場比賽。在泰森的比賽開始前，拳擊臺上有兩名女子在搏擊。 "I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God。Oh, my God。Women are about to fight,'" she recalls．"I had the popcorn and was getting ready to watch Mike Tyson．I was looking around like, 'What's going on？Women fighting？'I was so excited I couldn't wait to see it．I was like, 'I can do that．'" Laila was 18 and running a nail salon in her native Los Angeles, but the imagery of the gloves, sweat and punches was so firmly etched into her consciousness that she immediately spun180 degrees into another career direction. At that point, she says, the genes really kicked in. She had an indescribably magnetic attraction to her father's world. "Something in me has to do it. It's very natural." 她回憶道："我記得當時我在想：'天哪。天哪。女人要拳擊了。'當時我正捧着爆米花，準備看泰森的比賽。我環顧四周，好像在說'怎麼回事？女子拳擊？'我激動得再也等不及了，自言自語道，'我能幹這個。'" 萊拉當時18歲，在她的洛杉磯老家開了一家指甲美容店。但在那場比賽後，拳擊手套、汗水和出拳的鏡頭深深地銘刻在她的腦海裏，她立即來了個180度的大轉彎，開始選擇新的職業道路。她說，在那個時刻，基因確實起了作用。父親的那個世界對她產生了一種難以名狀的磁力。"我身上的某種東西在要我那麼做，這很自然。" Laila's father, she quickly points out, would prefer that she not take on the dangerous and bruising world of boxing. Johnny McClain, her husband／manager（and former boxer himself）feels the same way. Mom Veronica Anderson was a bit more pragmatic and encouraged her to pursue whatever path gratified her most. 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 offspring of a legend made her an easy target for high school kids to see just how tough she was. They, not she, failed the test. And she's passed every pugilistic test she's taken since. For the public, her biggest test took place last summer in upstate New Yorkwhen she took on Jacqui Frazier－Lyde, the daughter of Joe Frazier, her father's most celebrated opponent during the 1970s. 她馬上指出，父親倒希望她不要選擇危險而會被打得鼻青臉腫的拳擊職業。她的丈夫和經理人約翰尼·麥克雷恩（他本人以前也是拳擊手）也這麼認爲。媽媽維羅尼卡·安德森則更現實一些，鼓勵她去追求自己最喜愛的任何事業。她生活中的兩位男士都爲她擔心，但又百分之百地支持她。"他們不想讓我受傷"，萊拉說。 早在走進拳壇前，萊拉就是一名鬥士。作爲一名傳奇人物的後人，她自然成了高中同學們的靶子，大家都想看看她到底有多厲害。結果，總是他們而不是她輸掉了比賽。她也通過了此後的每一次拳擊考驗。對公衆而言，萊拉最重大的一場比賽是去年夏天在紐約州北部迎戰傑基·弗雷澤·雷德，她是阿里70年代最知名的對手喬·弗雷澤的女兒。 That fight provided the biggest shot in the arm that women's boxing has received to date. Media credentials were requested from outlets all over the world. Some billed it as"Ali／Frazier－－Genera tion Ⅱ". No match involving women had ever garnered so much attention. Laila squeaked out an eight－round majority decision in the middleweight contest. One of her biggest boxing－related peeves is constantly being called"champion" by journalists although she hasn't won a championship title--yet. "People are calling me champion even though I don't have a belt yet. I'm the best at the level where I am. I want to win a belt and defend it a few times. " 那場比賽是迄今爲止，女性拳擊比賽場上最激動人心的一幕。世界各地的媒體紛紛要求採訪比賽。一些媒體打出的標題是"阿里---弗雷澤第二代大戰"。從來還沒有哪場女子競賽像這樣引人注目。萊拉在這場８個回合的中量級比賽中，僥倖以點數獲勝。 萊拉常感到最大的煩惱是，儘管她還沒有獲得過一個冠軍頭銜，可記者們總稱她爲"冠軍"。"人們叫我冠軍，可我還沒有得過一條腰帶。我是我這個級別中最棒的，我想贏得一條腰帶並能幾度衛冕。" Like it or not, she accepts the fact that she is the face of female boxing. And she hopes that her name and notoriety will help get the public to take it more seriously. And she wants them to take her 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. "This is what I want to do. It's about me, " she says. "And I want women's boxing to get its due respect. " 不論她喜歡與否，她都不得不接受這個事實，即她是女子拳擊運動的象徵。她希望她的名字和名聲會有助於公衆更認真地對待這項運動。 她也希望大家認真看待她。阿里這個姓氏已經並且還會繼續讓人注意她，但她決心在對手的臉上還有拳擊史上打上她自己的烙印。"這就是我想做的。主角是我，我要讓女子拳擊得到應有的尊重。" But even Laila Ali admits that she is a walking dichotomy. The powerful combination of gentility and brashness she acknowledges comes her way by genetics. "My mom is very classy, sweet, soft－spoken and spiritual. And I'm that way because when I start something, Ilike to finish. My father does what he wants to do, believes what he wants to believe and sticks with it. When he makes his mind up to do some thing, he does it and doesn't let anything get in his way. He was always determined and confident. I'm the same way." Laila is determined to embrace the spirituality of her mom and the strength of her dad while carrying out her own niche in the world. And she's committed to proving to the world that women can have enduring success in the ring. 但即使是萊拉·阿里也承認，自己的性格具有鮮明的兩面性。她自認爲她的溫文爾雅與"粗魯莽撞"的強力結合來自遺傳。"我媽媽非常高雅、和藹可親，說話溫柔，富有精神內涵。我也是這樣，因爲我一旦開始做某件事，我就想把它做完。我父親則做他想做的，相信自己所認定的，並且孜孜以求。一旦他下定決心去做什麼，他就去做，任何其他事情也休想阻攔他。他總是目標堅定，信心十足。我也是這樣? 萊拉決心秉承母親的精神和父親的力量，並在拳擊世界裏樹立自己的地位。她一心要向全世界證明，女性也能在拳壇上取得持久的成功。
