Laila Ali
Laila Ali
Laila Amaria Aliis an American former professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. She is the daughter of the late heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali with his third wife, Veronica Porsche Ali, and is the eighth of her father's nine children. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female super middleweight titles, and the IWBF light heavyweight title...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBoxer
Date of Birth30 December 1977
CityMiami Beach, FL
CountryUnited States of America
I think that the greatest lesson I learned from my father is just having compassion towards people.
I never intended to box forever, and always planned to move on to do other things.
I want to encourage women to take control of their health.
'All in With Laila Ali' is educational, inspirational, compelling programming profiling individuals that have reached for the sky, pushed themselves to the limit and did things that you would think were impossible.
I think that if you do want to be a fighter, then you need to work harder than everybody else and make sure that you surround yourself with good people, especially if you're a woman. You've got to find a team that takes you seriously as a female fighter and is not going to rush you into the ring before you're ready.
Focus on being balanced - success is balance.
I like to play by my own rules.
While I was boxing professionally, I never thought about my looks. The furthest thing from my mind was 'messing up my pretty face' when I was on my way to the ring to meet my opponent. Yet, people I'd meet along the way would always ask me if I was worried about my looks. Then they would go on to say that I was 'too pretty to box.'
Pregnancy isn't 'I can eat whatever I want,' because you have to remember you're going to be stuck with a lot of that weight afterwards that you need to try to get off.
Authenticity is very important - be true to one's self.
I was never offended that people underestimated me because of my appearance or that they thought I was pretty and discouraged me from fighting because they didn't want me to risk hurting my looks.
You have to fight for your health and stay on top of it. Our bodies are meant to be healthy.
Since I was a child, my father was sick. I've always known him to be that way. That's why I'm proud of him - he has a disease he's obviously struggling with, but he's not letting it stop him from doing what he wants to do.
If you knew you could change your lifestyle and diet and avoid heart disease and other things, you should do it.