Laila Ali
Laila Ali was born in Miami Beach on December 30th, 1977, to humanitarian and former heavyweight boxing world-champion Muhammad Ali and his third wife, Veronica Porsche Ali.
After earning a degree in Business Management from Santa Monica College, Ali was accepted into the University of Southern California’s business school. With a knack for business, Ali opened and operated a nail salon in California for several years before becoming intrigued by the world of boxing. After watching her first fight on television, Ali decided it was her time to step into the ring. She sold her nail business, and a year later, was training to become a professional boxer.
On October 8th, 1999, Ali made her boxing debut. She delivered a knockout punch to her opponent April Fowler only 31 seconds into the first round, and continued the trend of winning through knockouts for the next 8 matches. In October 2000, Ali dethroned women’s boxing champion Kendra Lendhart, and in 2002, Ali took home 3 additional belts.
In August 2002, in the second round of a fight against Suzy Taylor, Ali became the new IBA super middleweight champion, followed by a November 2002 take of the WIBA and IWBF super middleweight championships.
To prove herself as the best female fighter in the world, Ali took on Christy Martin, who had not been knocked down once in her past 50 rounds. In August 2003, Ali knocked down Martin and finished the fight in the fourth round. Ali’s last fight was in February 2006, when she knocked out her opponent only 56 seconds into the match.
After retiring from professional women’s boxing, Ali authored a motivational book for women entitled Reach!, hoping it would help to inspire young women who needed direction in their lives. Ali has also been featured in a number of women’s magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated, and is currently engaged to former NFL star Curtis Conway.
Ali and Conway plan to marry in July 2007, and Ali has made no secret that she enjoys the simpler life. Having retired from boxing, and spends much of her time planning her wedding, cooking, and doing Pilates. She has also lent her figure to several modeling stints in her spare time, and seeks to present herself as a positive role model for young women.
In 2007, Ali accepted a spot as a celebrity dancer on the reality show Dancing with the Stars, competing with professional partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
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