Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader

BLOODSPORT

302 WOMEN AND SPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES y BLOODSPORT Woman’s First Pro Fight Is Her Last Joe Posnanski Kansas city, mo.—No woman in the United States has ever died boxing. Only one has ever come close. This is the story of Katie Dallam. She almost died shortly after her first fight. This is the story of Sumya Anani. She was the woman who punched relentlessly. They met briefly before their fight on a Wednesday in December at the Firefighter’s Union Hall in St. Joseph, Mo. Anani talked about her days as a yoga instructor and massage therapist. Dallam talked about her days as a drug-and-alcohol counselor for the state of Missouri. They spoke nervously , like two women sitting in a dentist’s waiting room. Then they walked into the hall, into the roar and the haze, and struck each other for seven minutes. The two women tapped gloves. The crowd screeched at the sight of blood. Dallam collected $300. Anani made $400. Few saw the ambulance leave the building. Everybody remembers the details differently, but that’s not unusual on nights of tragedy. One remembers shrieks where another recalls silence. One sees fury where another senses calm. Danny Campbell, the boxing promoter, remembers Dallam talking freely when the fight ended. Stephanie Dallam, Katie’s sister, remembers only silence and a deadness to her eyes. Katie Dallam herself remembers nothing. She only sees the fight in her painting, with red strokes blushing against canvas. Then, nobody sees women’s boxing itself quite the same way. Women’s boxing yanks a million emotions out of people. It is violence and blood and sex and gimmick and sport blended together so intensely, so furiously that no one can feel one part without tasting another. In a few weeks boxing’s biggest promoter, Don King, will put on the first ever pay-per-view card with all women fighters. Some people laugh. Some are sickened. Some cheer. Some plunk down their money. In England and other European countries, women’s boxing is banned. In the United States, it swims toward mainstream. From Kansas City Star, 8 June 1997. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. “You have to understand, this is not powder-puff stuff,” boxing promoter Danny Campbell says. “These girls really fight. That’s one of the reasons it is becoming so popular. And it is becoming popular, I tell you. “Women are not educated boxers, understand? They’re still learning the sport. They don’t know how to slip punches or block punches. They just stand in front of each other, punch away and the toughest girl wins. Blood flows, you might see a nose broke. They’re exciting fights.” Campbell promoted the Anani-Dallam fight of Dec. 11. He says everybody wants to see women’s boxing these days, and he gives the same reason every boxing promoter gives. Christy Martin. She fought Ireland’s Deirdre Gogarty on the under card of a Mike Tyson fight, and they stole the night with a six-round spectacle. Martin won the fight, though blood covered her face and body. Soon afterward she glared from the cover of Sports Illustrated. Women’s boxing had its first legitimate star. Martin now demands a six-figure purse for her fights. Martin is one extreme. Another is Kansas City’s Mary Ortega, who just turned 17, wears braces and says she has her mother’s permission to become a professional boxer. She spars with men, hungrily hits the heavy bag and hopes to have her first pro fight in August. “There are just no opportunities for women in amateur boxing,” she says. Another is Julie Ardwin, who lives in Kansas City, gives physical examinations by day and then throws stiff left jabs under smoky lights. She began fighting a year ago to get in shape. They told her she could make money in this gig. She has won five of six fights. She is tall, intelligent, athletic and stunning. “A beautiful girl,” trainer Joe Gallegos says. “Believe me, that sells.” “Promoters come up to me and say, ‘I’m going to make you a star,’” Ardwin says. “And I say, ‘How are you going to do that?’ They just smile. We’re a sideshow. There’s not a lot of legitimacy in women’s boxing.” Last week Julie Ardwin fought two fights. She won Monday in Kansas City. She was knocked out Thursday in Baton Rouge, La. “I guess...