Boxing die-hards will delight to see the names of Ali and Frazier above the Turning Stone Casino, New York, this Friday. But rather than being a sequel to the famous "Thrilla in Manilla" between the two great fighters of the past, this time it's the daughters of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier who are preparing to do battle.
Pretty Baby (Laila Ali) and Sister Smoke (Jacqui Frazier) are two of a number of daughters of boxing legends to enter the ring. Freeda Foreman, Maria Johansson and Irichelle Duran have also donned boxing gloves and followed their fathers' profession.
And who can blame them? Ali and Frazier will reportedly each walk away $1m richer - the money they will get from publicity surrounding the event will help mend any bones broken during the fight.
The bout has focused attention rarely seen before on the growing sport of women's boxing. When Ali and Frazier met recently at press conferences to promote the bout, the talk was serious. "There's nothing she can do to win," Jacqui Frazier said. "She's either in for a quick knockout or a slow butt-kicking."
But the match is also being billed as a freak show, involving two women who should not be fighting professionally because of their inexperience and lack of skill. Whatever happens on Friday, it is doubtful it will turn out to be anything like the "Thrilla".
Ali is the more experienced of the two boxers, but Frazier (38), a solicitor, has been in the business just over a year-and-a-half. The fights and knock-outs both women have achieved to date have largely been the result of bouts against women who were new to the sport. One comprehensive website on the sport, Women's Boxing Archive Network (WBAN - www.womenboxing.com), said of the Frazier fights: "Most of these opponents have never had a win in boxing, and were clueless about the sport. Shame on people involved in this... WBAN gives a minus 10 to the quality of these opponents."
The two women also don't seem willing to have themselves taken seriously by stepping out from the shadows of their fathers: the pre-fight talk of "butt-kicking" is an echo of the insults traded between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the 1970s.
There is, however, a very serious side to women's boxing. The sport is growing world-wide on both amateur and professional levels and a number of women boxers have become excellent ambassadors for the sport.
Deirdre Gogarty, from Drogheda, Co Louth, is one of them. Holder of the world featherweight title, she was considered one of the best women boxers in the world when she was active in the sport.
She says she got involved in boxing having been inspired by Barry McGuigan and soon after became obsessed with the sport. "I hoped I would grow out of it because I didn't want people to know I boxed, but I couldn't resist," she says. Injuries and a lack of formidable opponents has kept her out of the ring for the past three years.
Her fight against the most famous woman boxer, American Christy Martin, in 1996 on the Tyson-Bruno ticket in Las Vegas, was viewed in an estimated 30 million homes in 100 countries. The bloodied nose she gave Martin, who is promoted by Don King, captured the public's attention in the then little-known sport. Gogarty narrowly lost the fight to Martin, who was over 10lb heavier than Gogarty - essentially two weight divisions above the Irishwoman.
But Gogarty has never been able to fight in this country because in 1991, when she turned to competitive fighting, she says she was not allowed a licence.
"I couldn't get a licence. I was told flat out I was wasting my time." After spending some time in the UK - which she says was only marginally better for women boxers than Ireland - she went to the US, where she has remained since.
Although women's professional boxing has been licensed in the US since the 1970s, there were promoters and managers who were not willing to take her seriously. "I sent out letters of enquiry and got back such nonsense about topless boxing and wrestling," she says.
But she met a manager who recognised her love for the sport and helped her career in the US. While she tried to make boxing her full-time profession and gave up work as a graphic designer, the money just wasn't coming in and she had to return to the office. "You can forget about getting rich in women's boxing," she says.
Gogarty remains in the US in the hope her fighting career will resume. She has two wishes: one is to fight in Ireland and the other is for a re-match with Christy Martin, who, she says, has refused on a number of occasions to meet her again in the ring.
"Ireland is my home. It's where I was taught to box and it's where my family and boxing friends are. I'd like one chance for everybody to see what I've done." At present, Deirdre Nelson is the only professional woman boxer in Ireland. From Greencastle, Co Antrim, she made history last October by participating in the first professional women's fight to take place on the island, when she took on and defeated Bulgarian Tzanka Kurova in Belfast. The 32-year-old, ranked fifth in her division by the Women's International Boxing Federation, got involved in the sport through her fiancΘ and says that as Irish, British and European kick-boxing champion, it was a natural sport for her to get involved in.
BUT Nelson also has other battles on her mind. She is awaiting a decision from the equality investigations authority in Dublin after she brought a case last December against the Boxing Union of Ireland (BUI). Her claim is that she has not been allowed to fight in the Republic and is, therefore, being discriminated against. Nelson has a licence from the British Boxing Board of Control and says this should suffice to allow her fight in the Republic.
"It entitles me to box in the States . . . they make it awkward for women and are always applying rules when it suits them," she says.
Mel Christle, president of the BUI, says men with licences from other countries also have to be screened and tested. "She thought just because she had a British licence she could box, but it is still subject to all medical examinations being in order," he says.
To the charge that there is a deep-seated chauvinism that is trying desperately to keep women out of the sport, Christle says: "I would like to see competitive boxing irrespective of the sex. They must perform at a level which justifies their tag as professionals. If it's a spectacle, it debases the boxers and it debases boxing."
Christle says he recognises women are capable of being excellent boxers. "The women's fight on the Tyson-Bruno ticket was easily the best fight on the bill. It was a technical match. Both fighters were trying to out wit each other."
But there can be no denying the reason there are few women boxing in Ireland: it is because the sport is not being supported. Excuses to do with women's physical make-up and ability, which have been used for excluding women from the ring, also kept them from running the Olympic marathon until 1984 and competing in the pole-vault until the Sydney Olympics.
"While Britain is bad, Ireland is worse," says Nelson, who, although a professional boxer, works as a fitness trainer because of a lack of fights.
Things, however, may be about to change. Two months ago, the Irish Amateur Boxing Association was given approval on medical grounds to allow women to box. Sadie Duffy, one of a few women boxing referees in Ireland, has been given the task of promoting the sport. , their age/weight and what facilities they have for women boxers. Duffy estimates there are up to 500 women and girls boxing in clubs all over Ireland, who have not been allowed to fight in competitions.
Katie Taylor (14) is one of them. She has been training for the past three years and hopes to go to a European boxing championship in Finland in September to represent Ireland.
Although she is on the Republic's international girls soccer squad and is an accomplished Gaelic football and basketball player, her dream is to be a professional boxer.
"Boxing is my favourite sport. With others there are 10 players on the pitch, but in the ring it's all on you," she says.
Her father, Pete, is a boxing coach and watches over his daughter when she trainsthree times a week at St Fergal's community hall in Bray, Co Wicklow. Katie started boxing by going down to the club with her father and since then she has been hooked.
He says the girls who attend the club, like Katie and friend, Rachael Harmon, are technically better than boys at boxing because they are not as concerned with being aggressive and macho in the ring.
Despite many rounds in the ring, she has never had a broken nose, broken jaw or black eye. Amateur boxing is a highly controlled sport, claims Pete Taylor, and even more so at junior level, where referees will pull a competitor out of the ring if they are in any way distressed.
"I've had more injuries from football. I pulled a hamstring and I can't play at the moment because of a back injury," Katie says.
Katie knows she may get plicked up by one of the English football clubs who come to Ireland to find promising players for their women's teams, a sport now also on the rise. While she wouldn't object to a career in professional soccer, she says her heart will always be in boxing.