ANOTHER CROWNING MOMENT By Jeff Mayweather

On November 8th once again the boxing world took notice; on a night when most people would have rather been at home cozying up with their mates, instead of watching a boxing match. It was an extremely cool night, the sky was filled with dark rain clouds and any minute you thought a rain storm would strike, and yes the storm finally did arrive, just as the meteorologists had predicted, but not in the form of raindrops. The storm arrived that night not on the fans who sat ringside, in special delivery fashion to one Valerie Mahfood, courtesy of Laila Ali.

It was more than a stormy night for Mahfood as Ali constantly dropped right hands, left hooks on Mahfood's head. Ali, who is learning and improving with each fight, did not disappoint, as she boldly predicted that she would punish Mahfood for the things she said about Ms. Ali in the press.

It brought back thoughts of when her dad fought Oscar Bonavena and Ernie Terrell, as Muhammad Ali told the world that he would punish them for not respecting the changing of his name as they continued to call him Cassius Clay. Mahfood too was punished by Ali, the female version.

Valerie Mahfood deserves to be commended on her unwillingness to relinquish her titles without giving it her all. Each round she took a little more punishment than the previous one, until referee Joe Cortez had seen enough. Mahfood still ready and willing, even though she had not come close to winning a single round, protested the stoppage.

To many ringside observers the stoppage was a little premature but also understood and well accepted; even to her conqueror, Laila Ali, who said she too thought the fight was stopped a bit prematurely. Well, you got to admire an honest Champion.

I think that with each passing fight Laila is proving to the boxing world that she is for real in her quest to become one of the best, if not the best female fighter in the world. November 8th in Las Vegas concluded with her stamping her mark on the sport as she now owns three World Titles in the Super Middleweight Division, capturing two from Mahfood and a previous one from Suzy Taylor. With five titles available in her Division, she's 3/5 of the way there; three down and two to go.

VISIT JEFF MAYWEATHER'S "KEEPING IT REAL" CORNER