Laila Ali - From Ring to Dance Floor

Laila Ali's inspiring career as a boxer, following in her famous father's footsteps, has only been enhanced by her life and accomplishments outside of the ring.

Laila Ali was born December 30, 1977 to former Heavyweight Champion of the World Muhammed Ali and his third wife, Veronica Porsche Anderson. She is currently the women's boxing Triple Crown Super Middleweight Champion as well as a contestant on ABC's popular Dancing with the Stars.

Ali earned a degree in Business Management at Santa Monica College and then went on to own and operate a successful nail salon in California. She had planned to attend the University of Southern California Business School, but after watching women's boxing on television for the first time, she decided to become a boxer. Approximately a year later, Ali sold her business and started training to become a professional fighter.

Ali made her professional boxing debut on October 8, 1999, at the age of 21. She insisted that the press not record videos of this fight. Her opponent, April Fowler, was a 0-1 fighter who worked as a waitress. 31 seconds into the 1st round, she knocked out her opponent, April Fowler. After Ali's pro debut, she told reporters that she had made her father proud, and that she would knock out every one of her opponents and that it was a promise.

Born: December 30, 1977
Died: --
Famous For: Undefeated World Boxing Champion; Daughter of former Heavyweight Champion of the World Muhammed Ali; named one of People Magazine's Most 100 Beautiful People of 2007.
Key Accomplishments: Earned a degree in Business Management from Santa Monica College; Undefeated World Boxing Champion, Author; Model.
Significant Quote: "There's so many other things that I'm talented at, so many things that I could be doing, that I wouldn't be boxing if it wasn't what I loved to do."
Fun Quote: "I didn't even know that women boxed. And then when I saw it for the first time I wanted to do it."

Ali went on to win her next 8 fights by knockout, and in October of 2000, she beat the then-reigning champion Kendra Lendhart. She won 3 more belts in 2002. On August 17, 2002, she became the new IBA super middleweight champion after defeating Suzy Taylor in the second round. Then, on November 8, 2002, she won the WIBA and the IWBF supper middleweight titles after her opponent, Valerie Mahfood, forced the referee to stop the action at 1:14 of round eight. Next, she had to beat Christy Martin, who was considered the best female fighter in the sport. On August 23rd, 2003, Ali knocked Martin down for the first time in 50 professional bouts, and stopped her in the fourth round.

In her last fight, on February 3rd, 2006, Ali knocked out her opponent, Gwendolyn O'Neal, in just 56 seconds. The bout, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was attended by Nelson Mandela. Ali had the opportunity to meet him prior to the fight.

On February 20, 2007, ABC announced that Ali would participate in the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars. Her partner is Maksim Chmerkivskiy, and together they received the first 10 from judge Len Goodman for their rumba.

Ali also wrote a motivational book, which is called Reach!. She wrote the book to help inspire other young women. In it, she uses her own experiences and challenges as examples for her readers. She also loves to cook, enjoys Pilates, and has done some modeling, including appearances in Sports Illustrated, People, Ebony, Glamour, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Essence, ESPN the Magazine, and Time. Ali is currently engaged to former pro football player Curtis Conway. They plan to wed in July, 2007.

Mitch Mueller writes on a variety of web topics, always trying to make it easy for folks to use the web to better their lives.

http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/biographies/paris_hilton_biography.php

http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/biographies/laila_ali_biography.php

http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/biographies/simon_cowell_biography.php

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Is Your Band Ready for CD Duplication or CD Replication?

Its a typical situation. Youve been putting a lot of energy in your craft and people are starting to talk about your band. Youve played a few shows and everyone is asking for a CD. I used to think that in order to release your own CD you would go out and play a bunch of shows and then someone would come out and sign you. Theyd take care of everything. Theyd set up the recording studio, organize the artwork, and pay for it to get manufactured. Thats not the case these days.

At present, technology is readily available for any budding musician to record, create, and duplicate CDs. CD duplication involves CD-R media. CD-R prices have dropped dramatically since the first CD Recorders were available on the consumer market. This makes it an affordable option for anyone who wants to copy their own CDs and pass them on to friends, family, or fans. This is a great option for the young band that is still getting their feet wet in the music industry. Duplicating a limited amount of CDs can keep a limited budget in place.

If your band is at the point were your ready to start selling your CD your best option is to make a retail-ready CD and having it replicated. What is a retail ready CD? These are the same CDs you find in the music stores by the major label artists. They have great artwork printed on CD inserts, a nice tray card insert, silk screened art on the CD, and they are shrink-wrapped.

The retail-ready CDs are not duplicated, but Replicated. This means that an exact replica of your CD master has been stamped out on all of the CDs. CD Replication is the way to go if you are serious about selling your music for profit. In fact most music stores will not sell duplicated CDs. Think about it this way. It is illegal to sell or profit from duplicating copy written material. If you tried to sell CDs that have been duplicated to a retail store youll more than likely get turned down. How are they to know that it is really your band? One of the best anti-piracy practices that CD manufacturing plants have instituted is the verification of copyright and ownership through a International Property Rights Form. Filling out an I.P.R. form ensures the CD Replication plant that they are not infringing on anyones copyright.

CD Replication not only shows that you value your art enough to have it made retail-ready, but also cost effective. Ill break it down in general.

DIY CD Duplication

1 Computer with CD Recorder

100 Memorex CD-R

CD Jewel Cases

Printer Ink

Man Hours

Total $1495.00Typical CD Replication Package

CD Replication for 1000 CDs

1-3 color on-disc silk-screen imprint

CD Jewel box, assembly, professional quality film-wrap

2 Panel Insert and Tray card

Bar Code

Total $1000.00

These prices are very approximate and are only used for the purpose of estimating the difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication. Lets dig in a little bit. Ive already illustrated some of the benefits of CD Duplication and the benefits of CD Replication. You can see above that you are spending approximately $500 more taking on the CD duplication responsibilities yourself and only getting 100 CDs!! Having your CDs Replicated costs less and someone else is doing the work. You can spend the time youd spend on CD duplication and practice your chops or promote your upcoming CD release party, saving yourself $500 that you can use for items like merchandising, t-shirts, stickers, and posters.

Whether you choose CD Replication or CD Duplication, youll need to do some research. There are plenty of resources available for CD Duplication and you probably own everything you need. It is up to you and your band to decide which option is better depending on what level you see your band on. Are you a band that plays parties or small clubs, or is your band seasoned and touring? There are benefits to both. Find a local CD manufacturer in your area and ask for their recommendation. Most CD manufacturers also offer quick turn high quality CD Duplication with printing on the CDs. Keep rockin!

Blake Stoffregen writes for many websites including Crystal Clear Sound CD & DVD Replication. Crystal Clear Sound provides cd, cdr and dvd duplication and replication services and offers packages from disc only to retail ready.

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