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Ali aims to make boxing history in Bermuda

Eyes on the prize: Laila Ali's ambition is hold all four women's boxing Super Middleweight belts and be the undisputed world champion in that division.
Bermuda could be the venue for boxing history next March if Laila Ali gets her way.If all goes as planned, the daughter of the legendary Muhammed Ali could become the undisputed women's Super Middleweight champion of the world on these shores.

Bermuda could be the venue for boxing history next March if Laila Ali gets her way.

If all goes as planned, the daughter of the legendary Muhammed Ali could become the undisputed women's Super Middleweight champion of the world on these shores.

At present she holds the International Boxing Association's (IBA) belt in that division and is looking to wrest the three other belts which would make her the dominant force in women's boxing (up to 168 pounds) in that weight class.

On November 8, Ali will go after two other Super Middleweight belts - those of the Women's International Boxing Assocation (WIBA) and International Women's Boxing Federation (IWBF) - when she faces Valerie Mahfood in Las Vegas, USA. Should she be successful, the 24-year-old will need just one more belt to realise her dream.

"I'm at the point in my career where I am going to be fighting for championships because I want to become the undisputed Super Middleweight champ.

"I'm going to be fighting her (Mahfood) and taking her belts. She is going to have to put them both up so I'm going to win both at the same time," said Ali who won the IBA title from Suzy Taylor last month.

Ali and her husband/manager Johnny (Yahya) McClain - now on the Island for the Lori McNeil/Elbow Beach Celebrity Tennis Classic - are keen to have the bout for the fourth Super Middleweight belt take place in Bermuda.

That would be against Ann Wolfe who holds the International Female Boxers' Association (IFBA) title.

"The big fight we're working on bringing to Bermuda will be the last Saturday in March. It looks like it can happen. Right now we're talking to sponsors and nailing everything down.

"I feel confident it will definitely happen. She wants to be the undisputed champion and that will probably be the fight which happens here. That would be a very big fight," declared McClain.

Regardless whether the prospective title fight materialises, Ali is slated to be in action once international boxing comes to Bermuda in March. She will be looking to improve on the 12-0 (nine knockouts) record which she has established since making her pro debut in October, 1999.

"There are so many opponents right now. It's a matter of timing and what everyone else is doing in their career at that time," noted McClain.

The boxing card will be the showpiece event in a weekend of activities to launch McClain's youth charity, the Absolute Awareness Foundation (AAF).

"It will be the first big event of my foundation - having this fight in Bermuda. It will be a weekend of events. Portions of the proceeds from each event will be donated to develop a training facility for boxing here and to help re-establish the sport here," he explained, adding that the facility will also have a tutoring programme for youth.