It's been a little more than three years since Laila Ali first stepped foot in a boxing ring, and in that short time, she has gone from a novice with a notable last name to perhaps the finest (and most visible) female fighter in the game.

	Ali doesn't care to be known as a female fighter, but merely a fighter.

According to the ever-confident Ali, who defends her three world titles on an ESPN2-televised bout in Louisville, Ky., Feb. 14 against Mary Ann Almager, everything has also gone according to plan.

"In the beginning I knew where it was going," she said. "Everything that's happened, I knew that it was going to happen."

Most stories are never that cut and dried, though, and Ali's is no exception. Launching her career away from television cameras with a 31-second demolition of a waitress named April Fowler, Ali (if you've been living in a cave, she's the daughter of legendary heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali), was determined to do things the right way in terms of her development as a fighter. But the universe outside the insular world of boxing was not about to let a beautiful athlete with the name Ali slip through their hands.

So in blew the endorsements, magazine covers, and television appearances, as Ali feasted on the usual assortment of characters fed to developing pro fighters.

And out came the wolves, who accused Ali of cashing in her father's name, and lumped her in with the daughters of Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Roberto Duran, Ingemar Johannsson, and Bobo Olson, all of whom were making similar headlines with less than skillful in-the-ring performances.

"I think that people were skeptical in the beginning, but I expected that and I knew that it would take time, no matter what anybody said," Ali remembers.

The peak of anti-Ali sentiment came as the 25-year-old took on Jacqui Frazier-Lyde in June 2001. Ali scored a unanimous decision in a bout even the purists grudgingly admitted was enjoyable, and most wrote the daughter of 'The Greatest' off, figuring that she would take the money and run.

They were wrong.

After shoulder surgery and a tune-up win a year later, Ali stepped into the ring with two of the top super middleweights in female boxing, Suzy Taylor and Valerie Mahfood. Two knockouts later, Ali had three title belts around her waist, and respect from even the loudest detractors.

"There are two different types of fighters," said Ali. "There are the fighters that like to fight, love boxing, respect the game, and want to take their skills to the next level. They want to prove to themselves that they're the best by fighting the best. And there are those fighters that are just doing it to make money and that's on different levels. You don't have to be famous. A lot of people only make $500 a fight, but they're still fighting to make money, and it's just a job. They're going to do just what they have to do, and they'll take the easy fights. I'm not one of those people, and I don't see it as that big of a deal. I think if you're going to be an athlete and be serious about what you're doing, then you've got to fight the best people out there."

Almager, Ali's Valentine's Day opponent, has compiled a 14-5 (9 KO) record that would seem spotty in men's boxing, but in the smaller circle of the ladies, this slate has been built against the likes of Lucia Rijker, Mahfood, Taylor, and the next big name who may appear on Ali's dance card, Ann Wolfe, one of many quality fighters at 168 pounds who "She Be Stingin' " is targeting in the coming year.

"I have to fight the people that everyone wants to see me fight and that are supposedly going to be the most challenging," said Ali. "As of now, there aren't that many girls in my weight class. One of the girls I'll need to fight is Ann Wolfe because she's seen as big and strong. I don't really think that her skill level is very high, but she's a strong girl. Veronica Simmons we all know from her amateur background, but she doesn't really have that much professional experience. People seem to think that she's a test so I want to fight her. I also want to fight a girl named Leticia Robinson, who's 10-0 with 10 knockouts, has an extensive amateur career, and who I think is a very skilled fighter. I actually wanted to fight her for this fight, but they didn't want to take the fight. After that, there's not much left out there. Hopefully some girls who are amateur now will start turning pro and will make some more opposition for me."

And that's the rub. Ali is fighting the best possible opposition in her weight class, but she has flown by them in terms of skill so quickly that these current fights resemble her early bouts against mismatched opponents. Take her November fight against Mahfood, a tough Texan who was expected to take Ali into some deep waters she had never experienced before.

The bout was no contest, with Mahfood rarely getting close enough to Ali to do any damage. The nationally televised match was mercifully stopped 1:14 into round eight.

"She was supposed to be so tough and I knew just by watching her tapes that this girl ain't nothing," said Ali of Mahfood. "I knew that she was just a tough girl. She doesn't really have any boxing skills. She had her head straight up in the air, with no head movement. I knew that that fight was going to be easy for me. But it was what people wanted to see. With the girls in my weight class, the skill level just isn't very high. Just like in heavyweight boxing, the skill level isn't as high as in the smaller weight divisions because the heavyweights rely on power and being strong. And it takes more than that when you're in there with a skilled fighter."

But even the most ardent of Ali's supporters would have to admit that they didn't think she would get this good this fast. Regardless, Laila is her father's daughter when it comes to confidence, and now she's even backing up the boasts with her fists.

"I think I knew I had something special from the very beginning," said Ali. "Even though in the beginning, just like anybody else, your skill level isn't going to be high, and you're not going to look that great. But I learned so quickly and in my pro debut. I still looked better than a lot of the girls that had already been boxing for 3-4 years. But I feel like I have a long way to go now. I know that people look at my skill level and say that I have a lot of skills, but compared to men's boxing, they don't think that I do. So it's like you're grading on a curve. All I can do is compare to what's out there and how long they've been boxing. What makes a difference I think is that it's in my blood, so I do have natural ability, and it's a full-time thing for me. I'm very focused, I'm very hard on myself, and I have people around me who are serious about me, my career, and who know the game."

Blood only goes so far though. Laila's cousin, Ibn Ali, is only 3-1-1 as a pro cruiserweight, and his father (and her uncle), Rahaman Ali, the brother of 'The Greatest,' retired in 1972 with a 15-3-1 (6 KO) record. All have Ali genes, but what has separated Laila so far in her pro career is that she is a tireless worker in the gym. Away from the cameras and reporters, she is putting in the time necessary to become not only an outstanding female fighter, but also a top-notch fighter in general. And it's not by sparring with whatever stiff you can pull into a gym, either. To prepare for the Almager fight, Ali is sparring with light heavyweight contender Derrick Harmon and welterweight contender Cory Spinks. That makes you better. But she's not satisfied yet.

"I haven't gotten what I want, and what I always wanted was respect as a fighter," said Ali. "This is so serious for me, and everything goes to heart with me when it comes to fighting. So just having fame and making more money than everybody else - that was all expected. What I have to work at is getting my respect as a fighter, and not just a female fighter. I want to be a good fighter, but it's hard to get to a certain level when you're fighting people on a lower level. You can only be as great as the people that you fight."

Laila Ali has to be great, whether she likes it or not, and to add to the pressure, she has also been placed in the role of carrying the struggling sport of women's boxing, which is a daunting task, especially given the dismal attendance and pay-per-view buy rates of the December bout between two of the sport's biggest names, Christy Martin and Mia St. John.

With her business management degree in hand, Ali, a smart businesswoman as well as fighter, is watching the state of the sport carefully.

"I think with anything, whether it's boxing, a play or a singer, it has to be promoted and you have to have something that the public wants to see and is attracted to," said Ali. "Obviously it's not just me; it's my name also. The Ali name is so powerful alone. And I'm not only a fighter to the eyes of the public. People see me everywhere. They see me in commercials; they see me all over the place. So it's very hard for somebody to compete with that as far as the numbers are concerned. It's just going to take time because every time there's an all-female fight card, it's always sold out, and people enjoy it no matter what the skill level is. People like to see interesting fights and they like to see action. You always get that in women's boxing.

"I think that for it to be sold on a bigger level there has to be more fighters that are known. Fans have to know the fighters and know what their skills are so when they're going to fight somebody they want to see it. For example, if I fight Ann Wolfe now, which I'm not, it wouldn't make a difference because the public doesn't know her. They don't even realize how exciting that fight might be. So she needs to be promoted so people know that I'm getting in there and this might be a dangerous fight for me. It has to be built up that way so people want to see it. If people only know who I am, then it doesn't make a difference who I fight. People are going to get tired of just seeing me fighting people and winning so easily all the time. But (Ali laughs) I can't help that."

No, she can't help that, and with the way Ali continues to progress as a fighter, her opponents are going to struggle just to keep up. And unfortunately for them, it doesn't look like complacency is going to set in on Laila anytime soon, as she warns, "I think that they haven't even seen the half of it yet."