S.A. shenanigans deep-six Ali fight

You’ve got to pay to play, and since promoter Joe Manyathi didn’t pay, Laila Ali isn’t going to play.

The daughter of The Greatest packed her bags and jetted from South Africa after it became clear that she wasn’t going to get the purse promised to her.

The website Playfuls.com reported the exit, attributing the development to South African TV.

Ali, age 28, was to have faced off against Gwendolyn O’Neill on Aug. 5, but the last several days have been a swirl of rumors, charges and countercharges.

The 28-year-old light-middleweight champion arrived in the country last week to prepare for the fight against O’Neill, a 36-year-old mother-of-five.

In an interview with the e-tv television station on Tuesday, Damon Bingham of the Ali camp said that the bout was off. Ali, he said, had left the building, and for that matter, the country.

Boxing South Africa, the regulation commission that oversaw the promotion, insisted that the fight had merely been “postponed.”

Promoter Rodney Berman offered to give Ali a chance to fight on his card to salvage the whole debacle but it was not to be…