"Friday Night Fights" on ESPN reminded fans, once again, of just how good the sport of Women's boxing can be, provided a competitive bout is featured. Unfortunately, the ten round bout ESPN televised from Detroit, last Friday, Mary Jo Sanders overwhelming Valerie Mahfood in every one of those ten rounds, did not come within anyone's reasonable definition of "competitive." The best thing that "Friday Night Fights" accomplished on this night was to remind fans of the recent three bout card, televised from Albuquerque, on Fox Sports. Even the addition to the Friday telecast of Laila Ali, as a studio commentator, doing her "Hear Me Roar" routine, did not help and boxing fans could hardly be blamed for wondering "how soon until Fox Sports provides a rerun of Holly Holm, Ann Marie Saccurato, Kelsey Jeffries, Rhonda Luna, Lisa Brown and Jackie Chavez."

At one point in time, Valerie Mahfood and Mary Jo Sanders were capable of providing a very compelling main event bout. That point is long distant. Mahfood has not won in two years and then, a four round decision over Borislava Geranova, a 3-11 boxer in Germany. Valerie Mahfood has, over her ten year career, been in the ring with the best fighters in the middleweight division, Laila Ali twice, Ann Wolfe three times, and she does not need to concede the mantle of "tough fighter" to anyone in the sport. But the fact is that Mahfood is no longer a competitive opponent for any of the top middleweight fighters. At this point in her career, "tough" has become a euphemism for the ability to absorb punishment and that is, for the most part, the role she played on Friday night on ESPN. Valerie Mahfood deserved much better than to be on the wrong end of another of ESPN's "one good fighter" female bouts, that, unfortunately, seem to have become standard programming for network when it comes to it's sporadic televising of Women's boxing. ESPN "suits" would do well to be among the viewers of the rerun telecast of the Albuquerque card. ESPN has much to learn in terms of what makes a successful telecast of the sport of Women's boxing.

It was apparent early in the telecast that ESPN had placed scant emphasis on the Detroit card. A glance at the announcing corps provided the initial clue. It was the JV. The varsity, Joe Tesatore and Teddy Atlas, was "on assignment" and even Brian Kenny had deserted his usual studio post. In their stead, Todd Harris and Bernard Hopkins handled the ringside commentary and Robert Flores shared the studio commentary with Laila Ali. It almost made one yearn for Max Kellerman....almost! Bernard Hopkins, to be fair, handled his color assignment, as the bouts unfolded, with unexpected insight, although he occasionally fell prone to uttering bland generalities while describing the action in the ring and exhibited a distressing penchant for the use of the exclamation "absolutely" when he agreed with his ringside partner's comments. Todd Harris was nominally capable in describing the blow/blow, but tended towards self contradiction when noting Mary Jo Sanders was not a "big puncher" while, at the same time, expressing surprise, as the rounds went by, that Valerie Mahfood "was still around." Harris also made frequent and confused references to Mary Jo Sanders as "Mary Jo Fernandez" leading observers to the suspicion that Harris' regular "beat" is probably the tennis court rather than the boxing ring.

Robert Flores shared studio commentary with Laila Ali and, from the moment the "red light" blinked, there was little doubt who was the "elephant in the room." Laila Ali continually contradicted Flores' statements about her boxing record and current tenure on "Dancing With the Stars." It was, from the start, the "Laila Ali Show" and Flores soon consigned himself to lead-in questions inevitably followed by Laila Ali soliloquies. To wit: She's taken "time off from boxing" because she had not had fought "anyone" (competitive) recently (actually, it's been close to three years); the top middleweight fighters continue to avoid her, Ali specifically mentioned Leatitia Robinson and Ann Wolfe (this should come as news to these two boxers who have long publicly challenged Ali, in Wolfe's case, for over four years); Mary Jo Sanders is one of the "smaller fighters" who are coming up into the middleweight ranks and Ali conceded that she had spotted Sanders early in her (Sanders) career "when she was fighting at 138" and Ali had thought then that Sanders had potential. However, when Flores gathered the temerity to speculate that Ali/Sanders could be the "biggest" bout in Women's boxing history, Ali quickly pronounced that it couldn't possibly be bigger than Ali/Jacqui Frazier (a bout many regard as a desultory eight rounds that only slightly exceeded the low expectations of a "famous daughters" bout.)

Laila Ali does, however, have a basic understanding of the intricacies of her sport and made some good technical observations during the mundane undercard bouts (distinguished only by one male fighter's "platinum pink" trunks and another's mismatched boxing boots) and she presciently forecast that Valerie Mahfood "doesn't have a whole lot left," prior to the main event. A major portion of the studio time of the telecast was diverted to Ali's current participation on the "Dancing with the Stars" show, the discussion of which began with Laila correcting Flores' statement that "she had made the cut" by, correctly, pointing out that she was currently leading the voting. That lengthy discussion of the dancing show in my opinion, was a blatant cross promotion by ABC network and ESPN, both owned by the Disney Company, and, to this viewer, detracted from the primary focus of the evening, boxing. (While clips of Laila Ali performing her dance steps were shown, under the heading "Thank God for small favors," viewers were spared "live" dance demonstrations by Ali and, as was briefly threatened, by Flores.)

Whatever your view of Laila Ali, as a straight talking celebrity or one more self-absorbed athlete (I come down somewhere in the middle of those two depictions) it is irrefutable that Laila Ali has a rare and "hard to define" quality that is often labeled "television presence." In industry jargon, it is known as a high "Q" rating and is a sought after commodity both on television and in sports. Laila may have a tendency towards overbearing rhetoric and overuse of the first person pronoun, she may be intolerant of contrasting view points, but she has the ability to dominate a TV screen the same way she has, thus far, dominated in the ring, not strangely, reminiscent of another boxer with the same last name.

Laila Ali bobbed and weaved past questions about her specific future plans in the sport, whether she would, indeed, return to the ring and, if she did, whom she would fight next. Mary Jo Sanders is, of course, a possibility. The Detroit fighter is backed by a strong, knowledgeable boxing and marketing team and a Ali/Sanders bout, despite Laila Ali's revisionist history regarding the Jacqui Frazier bout, would be huge, particularly in the Detroit market, if only for the reason that Mary Jo Sanders would represent Ali's first quality opposition in over three years. The absence of punching power in Sanders' repertoire would be a serious detriment if and when such a match is made. Sanders' task of "outboxing a boxer", and Laila Ali has significant boxing skills, is a tall order for any fighter, let alone one stepping in against a bigger and stronger opponent, as Sanders would be doing.

Laila Ali, a very smart woman, smart enough to know that she cannot pretend that continuing to knock over overmatched opponents in any way resembles a boxing legacy. To leave a legacy, Laila Ali needs to fight and beat quality opponents, assuming that, Laila Ali intends to fight again. She is also smart enough to be aware of the "showbiz" adage "always leave 'em wanting more" and the current hiatus from the ring would seem to serve that purpose, nicely. It may even erase the memory of three years of nondescript, noncompetitive bouts. What comes after the hiatus, after "Dancing with the Stars?" Mary Jo Sanders, Ann Wolfe, Leatitia Robinson would all be very interesting matchups for Ali, and the decision whether to fight again and against whom, is squarely in the hands of Laila Ali. And, as Ali makes very clear, she's the "decider." Laila Ali knows this, everyone in the boxing world knows this and all the boxers hoping for the big payday, that an Ali bout represents, know this. Laila Ali seems totally comfortable with the current situation, although she is probably the only one in the sport of Women's boxing who is. But what is clear is that Laila Ali, taking a cue from Sinatra's long-ago song, is going to do it her way and, in her time, Laila Ali will let us all know the direction she intends to take. Until then, the boxing community and the fans of the Women's boxing can do little but hope for more bouts like the three in Albuquerque and less bouts like the one in Detroit last Friday. Bernie McCoy

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