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This Pioneering female boxer and daughter of the lengedary heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was born on December 30, 1977, in Los Angeles, California.
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This Pioneering female boxer and daughter of the lengedary heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was born on December 30, 1977, in Los Angeles, California.
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|| Home | Archives | WYP | Staff|| Back to the top
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Born
the second of two daughters to the boxer and his then wife Porsche,
Lalia since the day she was born was one to not be messed with. This
5'10"powerhouse sure proved her warrior skills at the tender years of
her adolescence. Her parents divorced when she was only eight years
old. She and her mother Porsche, and sister Hanna moved from the luxury
lifestyle to a smaller home away from their father. Ali's seperation
from her father proved to be slighty damaging.When Ali was 12, she started
hanging out with the "wrong crowd" and got arrested at the age of 14,
she was then put in a juvenile detention center for three months and
sent to a group home for one month after her mother realized she was
out of control.
After
relazing how much she needed to get her life control Ali decided to
get her lher act together. She finished high school as a straight "A"
student and At the age of 19 she opened a nail shop in Beverly Hills,
which turned out to be very successful. One night after watching female
boxer Christy Martin fight on television nearly two years ago, Ali sold
her business and decided she wanted to become a professional boxer.
Knowing that it wouldn't be easy physically or publicy, Lalia was careful
to train correctly and determined not to live under her father's shadow.
Ali, made her ring debut on October 8,1999,at the Turning Stone Casino
Convention Center on the Oneida Indian Nation Reservation, in Verona,
New York. Laila insisted that press did not video this fight.
Her
opponent, April Fowler, was a 0-1 fighter, who worked as a waitress.
The anticipation of Laila Ali making her pro debut was an understatement.
She received more press than any other woman boxer, other than the Diedre
Gogarty vs. Christy Martin fight in 1996. Since her debut, Ali has become
one of the most publicized female boxers in the country. She has rung
up more endorsements than any other female in the world of boxing. This
attention has been majorly important for the sport in general, thanks
to Ali and many other female boxers the sport is being taken more serious
by speactators and sponsors alike. In her most recent fight, Ali fought
Jacqui Frazier-Lyde.
This
event was hyped for one main reason it sort of rehashed the fight that
the girls fathers, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had back in the day,
Ali won the fight. So did Lalia, she emerged victorious to re new her
record to 11-0. Both fighters exchanged punches in the final round but
it was Ali who landed the cleaner, more effective shots. To promote
the main event Frazier-Lyde did endless interviews, and speeches. For
her part Ali was far less talkative. She did her talking with her fists!
Lalia Ali is making history for the world of boxing and helping women
in sports to make amazing strides when it comes to acceptance.
