Key Takeaways
- Boxing broadcaster Emily Austin posed with undefeated former champion Laila Ali at the 41st Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner in New York.
- Laila became the event’s second Ali honoree 40 years after Muhammad Ali, making them its first father-daughter pair to receive the distinction.
- The dinner raised money for paralysis and neurological research while also honoring Rob Gronkowski, Chris Webber, Misty May-Treanor, and Edgar Prado.
Ask Emily Austin to name her favorite boxer of all time and she doesn't hedge. “Listen, Ali is one of one,” the sports broadcaster told Max Raskin about Muhammad Ali in a 2025 interview. A year later, she got to put her fists up next to his daughter.
On Monday, October 5, Austin crossed paths with Laila Ali at the 41st Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner at New York Hilton Midtown. Getty photographers caught the pair smiling together before raising their fists for the cameras. The 48-year-old undefeated former world champ wore her honoree medal over a champagne gown, while Austin opted for black and ivory.
What made the moment full-circle had everything to do with the event itself. Muhammad, the three-time heavyweight champion who famously declared himself “The Greatest,” was honored at the inaugural Great Sports Legends Dinner in 1986. Four decades later, Laila became the second Ali to receive the honor, making them the first father-daughter pair in the event’s history.
“I’ve worked very hard to establish my own identity, create my own path, but I will always be proud to be my father’s daughter,” she told the New York Post.
The cause hits close to home, too. Proceeds benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, which supports research at The Miami Project into neurological conditions including Parkinson's, the disease Muhammad battled for 32 years. Gloria Estefan emceed the star-heavy night, which also honored Rob Gronkowski, Chris Webber, Misty May-Treanor and Edgar Prado.
Laila’s own résumé is stacked. She retired in 2007 at 24-0 with 21 knockouts and was later inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. She also finished third on Dancing With the Stars and has spent this fall promoting her first children’s book, A Spark of Greatness: The Autobiography of a Fighter.
Austin, 25, is coming off a busy stretch of her own. She debuted as DAZN's social presenter during Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia fight week in 2024, which led to regular fight-week assignments for the network. In August, she added Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions to the mix, working the promotion’s Temecula card from the weigh-ins and face-offs through fight-night interviews.
“Proud to join a team that continues to push boxing forward and has done so much to elevate women’s boxing,” Austin wrote on Instagram afterward.
She hasn’t exactly been staying put outside the ring, either. Austin spent part of the summer covering the FIFA World Cup, then headed to Venice in September for the Furies premiere.
By Monday, she was back in New York, standing beside the daughter of the boxer she once called “one of one.”
