Coverage of another female athlete, Laila Ali, was due to reasons other than ripping off her shirt. The reason that Ali was covered was due to the fact that she is a legacy. She is a the daughter of the famous Muhammed Ali. Laila, 22, started to box and try to follow the famous foot steps of her famous father. The media coverage of this up and coming female boxer is phenomenal. In her first fight, Laila "Madam Butterfly- Ali, knocked out her opponent, April Fowler, in thirty-one seconds. The main focus of her fame is in direct relation with the fame of her father and his reign of her famous father. Laila fame has brought a whole new light to the world of female boxing. Other former heavyweight champions, George Foreman and Joe Frazier, have encouraged their daughters to participate in this brutal sport. These women who are successful in the business world, working an attorney and a nail salon owner, are very interested in trying to share the spotlight with their famous counterpart fathers. The media has deemed women boxing as an unruly display of masculinity. Labeling women who participate in this sport as a dyke or lesbian. Since boxing is such a brutal sport, some parts of the media have labeled the sport as an act of unnecessary roughness with a strong undertone of un-called for violence. Throughout time women have gone through a lot within the world of sports. In 1999, Newsweek, published an article outlining the "Leaps and Bounds- the women have overcome to be where they are today. The events outlined in this article include dates which have made history such as in 1920 when the first woman competed in the Olympics and won three gold medals and 1965 when Donna De Varona became the first women to a sportscaster on network television. One of the most important stats within this article lies in the fact that in women sports have taken off so much that in 1996 the WNBA, the first women' pro basketball league is launched.
