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Queen bee Ali's daughter wins eighth consecutive fight
Updated: Saturday October 21, 2000 1:18 AM
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (AP) -- Laila Ali, with father Muhammad Ali watching at ringside, remained unbeaten by scoring a unanimous decision in the toughest match of her eight-bout career. The 22-year-old Ali, who had won her first seven fights by knockout, had her hands full with 34-year-old Kendra Lenhart in a six-round bout Friday night in the Palace of Auburn Hills. The bout preceded an International Boxing Federation junior welterweight title defense by Zab Judah of Brooklyn, New York, against Hector Quiroz of Mexico on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Andrew Golota heavyweight bout. Tyson won when Golota quit before the start of the third round. Lenhart appeared to have the best of the first three rounds before Ali started to come on. But one judge scored the fight 60-54 for Ali, giving her every round. Each of the other two judges scored it 58-56 for Ali. "I'm disappointed I didn't knock her out and I got hit too much," said the 5-foot-10, 165 1/4 pound Ali. "But she was a big girl. I hit her with some good shots. I should have boxed more." The 6-foot, 165 1/4 pound Lenhart, of Lenoir, Tennessee, is now 6-8-1. In the IBF junior welterweight bout, Judah pounded Quiroz's face lopsided and retained the title by stopping the challenger in the eighth round. The end came at 1:56 when with Quiroz's right cheek badly swollen and his right eye nearly closed, referee Dale Grable stopped the match on the advice of a ringside physician. Judah, 139 1/4 pounds, ran his record to 25-0 with 19 KOs, while Quiroz, 140 pounds, lost for the fifth time against 31 victories and one draw. He has 25 knockouts. While the crowd often booed lapses in the action, the left-handed Judah scored with enough sharp punches to the head to make Quiroz's face into a mask of pain. It was the third successful defense of the 140-pound title for Judah, who will turn 23 next Friday. In a 10-round bout that opened the pay-for-view telecast, Alex Trujillo, 136 pounds, of Puerto Rico, got up from a fourth-round knockdown and scored a 10-round unanimous decision against Jose Juarez, 134 pounds, of Mexico. In a heavyweight bout that was not televised, David Izon, 224 pounds, a native of Nigeria living in Pensacola, Florida, stopped Mike Sedillo, 226 pounds, of Chino, California, in the third round.
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