I've always had a thing for girls who could kick my ass. It's not that I want to have my ass kicked. I just think muscles are sexy. As a boxer, Laila Ali is the real deal. She doesn't need any American Gladiators competition to prove herself, so she can just host. While Hulk Hogan interviews the male contestants, Ali brings her perspective to the ladies in battle.

---

CraveOnline: Did they ever talk about you as a gladiator, or was it always you as a host?

Laila Ali: Oh no. I think with the gladiators, they wanted it anyway, that never came up, not that I know of. You want people who aren’t already known, with personalities cause they’re creating their personalities. They go by their gladiator names, no one knows who these people are. No one would ever see me as any different other than Laila.

CraveOnline: Where does American Gladiators fit into the competitive sports world?

Laila Ali: In the competitive sports world? That’s a hard question. Being an athlete, I look at TV as TV and entertainment. It’s definitely a competition. They don’t last that long, maybe a minute. It’s not something you train for all year. So I couldn’t really compare it to doing a real sport but it is a competition, because it’s real people going up against gladiators. Being that the show is new, the gladiators are still learning, they still need to get some experience under their belt. As they perform more, they’ll get better as they go. It’ll get tougher.

CraveOnline: What’s harder: American Gladiators or Dancing with the Stars?

Laila Ali: For me? Dancing with the Stars. I’d be kicking butt if I was out there.

CraveOnline: Have you tried anything yet, and is there anything you think you’d be really good at?

Laila Ali: The joust, yeah, I gotta try that before this is all over. It’s kind of like fighting, because you have to use your balance. I know how to put my body and power into the stick, make it come from my legs, whereas a lot of people are just swinging with their arms.

CraveOnline: Did you see a difference in the competition between the female gladiators and the men?

Laila Ali: No, there hasn’t been. I, for one, don’t vouch for anyone I don’t know. I don’t care if they’re male or female. May the best person win. I’m not one of those women who’s like pro women. I’m an individual, and I’m in an individual sport. So I see everyone as individuals, not as male or female. I usually tend to root for the competitors, not the gladiators, because they’re the ones who are really here. They’re not really competing against the gladiators, they’re trying to get their points. I always try to remind them, "Hey look, you’re going up against each other but you have to face the gladiator, though. In the end, you have to remember that you’re trying to do better than your contestant is going to do."

CraveOnline: Were you a fan of the original Gladiators?

Laila Ali: Yeah, I was a fan. It depends on what you consider a big fan. I watched the show, I was definitely familiar with it, I enjoyed it. So I definitely thought this was perfect for me because I didn’t aspire to be a host in my life. But this is perfect because it’s an athletic show, and it’s competition, and it just felt really natural for me.

CraveOnline: How much time did this take away from your own training?

Laila Ali: I’m not training right now. I took a hiatus from boxing before I started Dancing with the Stars because I wasn’t being challenged enough. It’s hard for me to compete at the level that I train and get ready, and know that the person I’m going to be facing is not really on my level skill-wise. It’s like a professional football player going against a high school player. You don’t get any value, it doesn’t really feel good to beat them because I was supposed to. What do you expect? So it’s hard to keep training. That’s how you end up in the ring in the wrong place mentally and lose in the fight, or something happen because you didn’t take it as seriously as you should have.

CraveOnline: What’s the future for you once Gladiators is over?

Laila Ali: Gladiators isn’t over, it’s just the first season. It’s going to be an on-going thing. Right now, I’ve taken a hiatus and I wasn’t always going to box forever. That I knew. So you have to set things up for yourself after boxing. I’ve always had a plan of action to become a world champion, be undefeated, which I am. So at any point, if I did decide to retire now, I’d be fine. So if there’s somebody that is willing to actually get in the ring, there are some competitive fights out there, I just have not been able to get those particular girls in the ring. For whatever their reasons are, they won’t get in. So if I take some time away from boxing, maybe they’ll say, "What the heck, we can go in and fight her." Because they can’t really go much further in the sport without me, so once they realize that… and if they don’t ever, hey, what can I say. This is a lot easier for me, health wise anyway.

CraveOnline: Have you ever played any boxing video games?

Laila Ali: I don’t play video games. My husband does. He plays sometimes the football, and every once in a while when he gets bored, he’ll do a little boxing in there. He gets into the football. You can trade players and he keeps up with the whole aspect of the game, not just the game. He’s a fanatic.

CraveOnline: What’s like going to be life like after boxing?

Laila Ali: I want to go into lifestyle and fitness, so this is just one stop along the way, because it does have to do with fitness. I’m also doing another show. I just finished another show for Nickelodeon. They’re having a new network for teens, the N Network, and it’s kind of like a kid’s version of The Biggest Loser, called Student Body. These kids have to change their way they look at life, their attitudes, so it’s not just physical, it’s the mental as well. I’m the mentor of the show. Of course, a lot is going on in their lives, and we deal with that on the show. So that’s coming out next year. Of course, everything has to be meaningful, but this to me was fun. It fit me, but it was fun at the same time. Eventually, I’d like to have my own products, my brand, and one day I’ll be sitting retired somewhere. But I have a lot of work to do before I get there.

CraveOnline: Is there a sport you haven’t tried yet?

Laila Ali: Yeah, I never played sports, just boxing. I’m not a team sports person type person, so I probably would have been good at tennis, because I like tennis. But my parents really didn’t push me. I think if my parents would have guided me and stay committed, I could have played any sport I wanted to, but I never did. I was a little wild when I was younger, but as I got older, I decided to get into boxing.

CraveOnline: What fitness tips would you have for readers?

Laila Ali: There’s so many, where do I start? What I have a problem with nowadays is just all bad foods being sold to us. It’s like sugar free, fat free, everything has chemicals in it. A lot of the problems we have now, like heart disease and cancer and all that, comes from the way we eat, and people don’t realize that, from the body getting stopped up. There’s so much I could say, but my angle is more health, not just looks. There are people who are thin, but unhealthy. They look great. People just need to do more research, and care about what they’re putting into their body, try to eat clean, eat at home, more so.

CraveOnline: So your advice would be eat natural foods?

Laila Ali: Not necessarily. Natural is good, but not everybody can. Natural food costs more money, so not everybody can afford it, but if you’re cooking at home, you know what ingredients are in your food. When you’re going out, a lot of times you don’t know what’s in it. So you just have to take more care.

CraveOnline: How surprised have you been to become famous from Dancing with the Stars?

Laila Ali: I’m not really surprised because it didn’t happen by accident. When I was boxing, I didn’t do much other than boxing because I remember when I first started fighting nobody was taking that seriously. I was very adamant about focusing on just boxing. I never took any of the other opportunities that were presented to me because I was trying to prove something to myself and to the world that I was serious. Now, I’m past that. I’ve done what I needed to do and I pretty much said, "Okay, I want to do other things". I made that known and I went on Dancing With the Stars so that people could see another side of me. And also to have fun because of course it’s a lot more fun than actually fighting.

CraveOnline: Your father was both a fighter and a showman. Did you inherit both traits?

Laila Ali: The difference between my dad, I mean, I think that my performance speaks for itself as far as boxing is concerned. But my father is more of a showman than I am, definitely. I mean, he lives to put on a performance and make people laugh. If I make you laugh it wasn’t on purpose. I wasn’t trying to.

CraveOnline: What did you think of Mayweather’s last fight?

Laila Ali: I actually was working that day and I got home to see the fifth round on. I thought Ricky Hatton was doing a really good. If anyone could beat him, I thought Ricky Hatton had a good chance. But I knew right when his corner, I heard his corner tell him just go in there, forget defense. Just go crazy. I said he’s going to run into something and that’s exactly what happened. You can’t do that with a guy like Floyd because he sees everything. He sees every mistake. But I think it was a tough fight for Floyd and I know he was very happy when it was over because I’ve been in fights like that.

CraveOnline: When you started boxing, how determined were you to make people take it seriously?

Laila Ali: You’re a writer. Do you remember when I went pro what you thought? Basically, women’s boxing, not everybody, even until today, they don’t really care for it. They don’t feel that women should be in the ring. I wasn’t really concerned with what anyone thought. That’s what I wanted to do. Obviously it’s in my blood. I’ve been successful at it, so I’ve kind of moved on from it. I’m still the same person now. I approach everything the same way. So anything I do, I’ve well thought out and I do my best and I’m very confident that I’m going to be good at anything I decide to do. I feel that anyone can be. I think that once you have confidence in yourself and you believe in yourself, and you make a decision, and you go for it and you’re willing to work hard at it, then you can pretty much do anything you want to do. That’s just something I believe. So sometimes people take that as being cocky but I feel that more people should feel that way about themselves. Of course people didn’t take it seriously but I don’t really worry about that. I don’t really focus on negativity too much and what people think because everybody has an opinion. So I can’t worry about that.

CraveOnline: Even though your parents divorced, was your father still a strong influence?

Laila Ali: Well, I think just watching my parents and how they lived their lives. My dad never actually sat me down and said, "This is what you should and shouldn’t do." I just watched how he leads his life as an example. My dad has always been a good person. He cares about people, never stepped on anybody to get ahead, and stood up for what he believed in, and spoke his mind. I’m pretty much the same way. My mom, of course, is also very smart, a good person and very supportive. So I have the best parents I could possibly have. I have to live my own life and my dad doesn’t agree with some of the things that I do. I don’t really care. I’m still going to do what I want to do.

CraveOnline: You're probably a better dancer.

Laila Ali: I definitely was a better dancer than dad.