Laila, who is a personal trainer in Los Angeles, surprised the boxing world in 1999 by announcing she would try a hand at women's boxing.
To much fanfare, she made her debut on October 8 of that year, knocking out April Fowler in the first round. She rallied off 8 wins in a row, and many among boxing's fans started talking about wanting to see her and George Foreman's daughter, Freeda Foreman, or Joe Frazier's daughter, Jackie Frazier-Lyde square off in a boxing ring. On the evening of June 8, 2001, Ali and Frazier finally met, in a fight that became the first time a women's boxing fight was the main event of a Pay Per View event in history, a fight which was also nicknamed Ali/Frazier IV in allusion to their fathers' famous fight trilogy, and a fight which was part of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame induction weekend's activities.
Ali won by an eight round majority decision, and then took off almost one year, returning 364 days later to beat Shirvelle Williams by a six round decision and become the WIBA's world Super Middleweight champion. She retained that title with a two round knockout of Suzzette Taylor on August 17 at Las Vegas, and on November 9, she retained that title and added the WIBF belt by unificating the crown with an eight round knockout win over her division's other world champion, Valerie Mahfood in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On June 21 of 2003, Ali retained the title in a rematch with Mahfood, knocking her out in six rounds. It was announced, on June 30th, that she would fight Christy Martin on August 23rd. She beat Martin by a knockout in four rounds.
Laila Ali would have begun 2004 by fighting the WBA women's number 2 ranked fighter, Gwendolyn O' Neil of Guyana, at Abuja, Nigeria. The fight was cancelled, however, when Ali's camp learned no airline had flights scheduled to Nigeria on the date she wanted to arrive there.
Ali's record stands at 16 wins and 0 losses, with 13 wins by knockout.