Laila Ali

Laila Ali is the founder of the Laila Ali Lifestyle brand and an athlete and champion of health and fitness. The youngest daughter of Veronica Porsche Anderson, and of the legendary Muhammad Ali, she is a strong, intelligent, woman, daughter, and wife.

While Laila has undoubtedly been the major draw in professional women’s athletics for years, she took on a new challenge when she strut her stuff in front of nearly 40 million people every week on ABC’s hit show, Dancing With The Stars. A glamorous and elegant Laila surprised everyone and charged into the finals, as viewers were able to get a sense of her humor, femininity, genuineness and beauty.

Laila’s personal background as a licensed manicurist, and her past work with skin care companies, led Laila to launch her consumer products brand with her own line of beauty and personal care products, “Laila by Laila Ali”. The multi-SKU product line is currently on shelves at Walmart and Sears, and will be available soon in more than 3,000 beauty salons nationwide.

Fitness is another important component of Laila’s life. Her attention to an overall healthy lifestyle has rendered her an expert in this field. Laila is currently the President of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization founded 37 years ago by Billie Jean King to promote sports, health and education among girls and women. Never one to stray from her passion, Laila has conveyed her commitment to health and wellness through multiple television platforms, as the host of “Student Body” on The N Network, a show that followed a group of teens as they attempted to change their own lives-from diet and exercise to volunteering and academics, as she co-hosted NBC’s “American Gladiators” with Hulk Hogan, and as she formerly served as a regular correspondent on CBS’ “The Early Show” as its resident Health, Fitness, and Lifestyle expert. Active in the community, Laila has lent her support to Kroger’s health and wellness initiative, a 2,400-store, nationwide endeavor encouraging Kroger customers to lead healthy, active lives, and to DoSomething.org’s Healthy Schools Challenge battling childhood obesity. In furtherance of her consumer product brand, and in line with leading a healthy lifestyle, Laila recently partnered with Vita Food Products for a signature line of fresh salsas, salad dressings, seasonings and marinades, which will be in stores in early 2023.

A true “multi-hyphenate”, Laila also authored a motivational book titled Reach! She wrote the book in an effort to help young women who may need to be inspired in life; using her own experiences and challenges as an example for her readers. Laila, a multi-talented entrepreneur, owned and operated a nail salon in California before entering the boxing profession. She had earned her degree in Business Management at Santa Monica College, but after watching women’s boxing on television for the first time, she instantly wanted to step in the ring. About a year later, she sold her business and started training to become a professional boxer.

Laila made her professional boxing debut on January 8, 1999, and in a sign of things to come, she knocked out her opponent, January Fowler, 31 seconds into the 1st round. Laila retired from boxing as the undefeated Super Middleweight Boxing Champion of the world with a 24-0 record, with 21 knock-outs. In her last fight, on January 3rd, 2007, Laila knocked out her opponent, Gwendolyn O’Neal, in just 56 seconds. The bout, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was attended by Nelson Mandela, a long time family friend.

Laila currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, former NFL star, Curtis Conway, their son, Curtis Jr., and the newest addition to the family, daughter Sydney.