AUSTIN, Texas–Championship boxer and TV personality Laila Ali—the daughter of Muhammad Ali–shared three things with a credit union audience here she said have helped her to compete at the highest level.
Laila Ali adresses the meeting
In remarks to PSCU’s Member Forum here, Ali showed a picture in the newspaper of her famous father holding her as a baby that was captioned, “The Next Champ?” But she told credit unions that while people assume she started boxing because of her father, the youngest of Ali’s nine children said that was never the case.
“I always wanted to be my own person and not Muhammad Ali’s daughter,” Ali said. “I went to beauty school while in high school. I wanted to move out of the house. By the time I was 18 I was living on my own and I had my business.”
It’s also when she first saw women’s boxing on television, an undercard event before a Mike Tyson fight. Before that, “I didn’t even know it existed. But I really wanted to do it and went home dreaming about becoming a fighter.”
Ali said she had not previously played sports in high school and wasn’t an athlete, and knew all the publicity that would also come with being Muhammad Ali’s daughter. She said it was another year before she headed to a gym and really began to explore whether she could be a fighter.
‘That Girl Hit Me’
Ali said she trained for three months, fell in love with the sport, and finally stepped into a ring with an experienced fighter named Marcia to do some sparring. “That girl hit me. I started swinging and I wasn’t hitting anything and got to the point where I felt kind of foolish, and I realized, OK, this is going to take some work,” she said. “It’s easy to say you want to be a champ, but it takes work. I had to accept no one was going to hand me a belt and no one cared that I was Mohammad Ali’s daughter. But it didn’t discourage me and I kept training.”
Ali said it wasn’t long before word reached her father about what she was up to.
A Father’s Concerns
“He said, ‘There’s going to be a lot of pressure on you. What if you get dropped?’ And I said, ‘I’ll get back up.’ He was getting frustrated that he wasn’t able to talk me out of it,” Ali related. “He finally told me what was on his mind--he said it wasn’t a woman’s sport and you shouldn’t do it. And I just said, ‘Dad, this is something I will have to disagree with you on and I’m going to do it. You can either support me or not support me.’ It wasn’t long before I made the public announcement on Good Morning America and that’s when the floodgates opened.
Laila Ali in front of photo of her father during PSCU Forum
In her first fight 80 media outlets were on hand, as well as her father. Ali knocked her opponent out in the first 54 seconds. Having prepared well had built her confidence, Ali said, and the confidence led to a sense of calm as she entered the ring for the first time.
Ali continued fighting until a fight with Jackie Frazier, the daughter of the Joe Frazier, who had been in three legendary fights with Muhammad Ali, for what was billed as Ali-Frazier 4. Ali won the fight and decided at that point it was time to begin fighting for some belts.
Once Ali won belts, every fight was a championship fight until she fought Christy Martin, who was the boxer she had first seen fight on TV. Ali knocked Martin out in the fourth round, and later she said her father came to her and said he was wrong, that women can fight, and he was proud of her. “He just didn’t want me to get hurt,” said Ali. “And he didn’t want me to embarrass him.”
A Final Fight
Ali exited the ring after winning four titles, with her last fight in South Africa with Nelson Mandela on hand. Mandela had been an amateur boxer in his youth. That fight ended with a first-round knockout by Ali.
Ali, who retired at 29, said she then had to start all over again with no real idea of what she was going to do. That’s when she received a call to do Dancing With the Stars, which she initially rejected. “And I thought about it and thought this might be an opportunity to show a different side of myself,” said Ali, who took the gig, which required “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
Ali made it to the finals on a show that has 40-million viewers. That would lead to other TV jobs, including being a host on programs, as well as a new beginning with a new marriage and now two children.
Now What?
Still, Ali said she spent five years trying to figure out what her “next thing was going to be.” The answer: “Encouraging people to lead a healthy lifestyle.”
“I really started being intentional about how I could turn this into a business for myself. I started doing TV shows in the food and healthy lifestyle spaces,” Ali said. “All these things were intentional to get to where I am now.” She has since published a cookbook called “Food for Life.”
“I truly believe leading a healthy lifestyle starts with the foods we put in our bodies,” she said.
Next up is organic Laila Ali Spice Blends. Ali is also hosting a show on OWN called “Home Made Simple.”
“I am blessed to do what I love and enjoy,” Ali said. “Find the thing you’re passionate about and do that.”
Three Guideposts
The three things that Ali said have kept her honest and helped her to compete at the highest level, which are:
- Qualify Yourself. This is about knowing one’s limits and then trying to push past them, Ali said. “Set the bar higher for yourself.”
- Embrace the Process. “Everything changes but change, right. When you realize that and you realize there is a process to everything, then you are more open to the challenges and the setbacks along the way. My confidence comes from preparation. I know I can do it because I’ve done it when you weren’t watching.”
- Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable. “You’re going to have to make decisions and sacrifices, but discomfort is temporary, but it’s absolutely necessary to reach your highest self.”