Champion boxer and member of the Women's Sports Foundation's Board of Trustees shares her inspiration to contribute to social change.
By Jessica Clawson
Published: November 11, 2008
Muhammad Ali is a name known around the world. The “Greatest” male boxer the sport may have ever seen, Ali made an impact on fans and fellow athletes with his talent in the ring, his headstrong personality and his investment in social change. He stood for what he believed in, including his religion, Islam. Twenty-one years later another Ali, with a similar candor and competitive streak, stepped into the ring and is making her own impact on the world.
At the age of 21,
Laila Ali, the youngest daughter of Muhammad’s nine children, took on the challenge winning her first bout. Ali was not in the ring to prove she deserved to be or to force others to respect her with a quick 31-second defeat of April Fowler. No, she knew she had the goods to back up any challenge and in the end the way to win respect as a boxer, period, was to get in the ring and do the she best she could.
“First people judge you by your appearance and most girls and women who were boxing thought, ‘Okay, this pretty girl is just trying to capitalize off of her father’s name,’” shared Ali, who accumulated a 24-0 record with 21 knock-outs.
“I was also confident and very vocal about how well I thought I was going to do and how I was going to become a world champion and knock everybody out. I knew I was going to do what I needed to do in the ring to back up everything I was saying.”
Growing up in the home of a world renowned athlete many people look at Ali and presume she had an easy life, in which sports always played a part. Anyone who believes this tale has never heard Ali talk about her life.
“I had some rocky teenage years; I was one of those kids that was a rebel without a cause. I grew up not knowing who my friends were, and I was always in search of my own identity. My high school years, my teen years, were a time of really trying to find myself and learning what not to do.”
The journey to self-discovery led Ali to begin hanging out with the wrong people, the wrong crowds, and in neighborhoods where she often found herself in trouble. For some people sports are the answer to staying clean and out of trouble. But despite her father’s career Ali was not raised around sports. Outside of physical education classes, staying active and playing sports were not within Ali's daily routine.
“That’s one regret I have; that I didn’t get involved in organized sports sooner,” said Ali. “I feel like I could have been good at anything I wanted to do, if I would have just had the discipline to follow through.”
While a student at college, and owner of a nail salon, Ali caught a fight of women’s boxing on the television. Driven to succeed, Ali decided she wanted to step in the ring herself, and after a year of thought she began training. Proving it is never too late to get involved in sports, Ali still believes today’s young girls should have the opportunity to experience the lessons and joys sports share with us as early in life as possible.
“I know how important sports are for kids physically, emotionally, to get that discipline and to find friends,” explained Ali. “I think [sports] should be a part of every child’s life no matter what it is; it is so important to be active and healthy as well.”
Soon after having her first child, a baby boy named Curtis Muhammad Conway, Jr., Ali and husband, NFL star Curtis Conway, have every intention of practicing what they preach.
“We are definitely going to give [our child] all the support he needs in order to be the best he can be and choose his own route, his own sport. But definitely it is a must that our child plays sports.”
The importance of sports in the development of children is one of the reasons Ali decided to join the Women’s Sports Foundation as a member of the
board of trustees. Understanding that children often deal with issues beyond their control, Ali believes her role as trustee is necessary to reach girls so that she can share her own life stories.
“I think that I need to get out and be seen and interact with young girls and let them speak to me and hear my story and what I’ve been through to inspire them. I am someone they can relate to and I’m a different person in-person and in my personal life than I am on television.”
Her work with the Foundation will help Ali reach many under-served girls across the country who benefit from the
GoGirlGo! program. While Ali looks to influence and inspire young girls before they become set in their ways, she has already left a legacy. Take notice; Laila Ali’s career from the bout against Jackie Frazier to her world championship titles to her television appearances on “Dancing With the Stars” and “American Gladiators,” Ali is proof to girls and women of all ages that no matter what you’ve been through in life or even how old you are, it is never to late to get in the game and experience the joy of being emotionally and physically happy through sports.