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by: Lee Resnick on July 2, 2004
Within The Ring.com reporter, Lee Resnick, hooked up with IBA Light Heavyweight Champion, Ann Wolfe in Texas, via teleconference. Ann provided this candid interview about her life, her career, and boxing. (Please understand that it is our policy to print interviews exactly as they are spoken. Ann's story is one of hardship, loss, and many misfortunes. To misquote or edit her words would be an injustice to Ann and all she has accomplished. We believe her story is one that should be told, but if you take offense to profanity we recommend that you not read this article. Alan - WithinTheRing.com)
LR:Ann, I'm aware that you had a difficult upbringing. Can you tell us about your childhood and some of the travails you had to overcome?
AW:I'm not going to say I had to overcome anything. It's just what life dealt me. Not everyone has a perfect childhood. Some people have to go through things while others don't. Some people have been through things worse then I've been through. I don't like to dwell on what I've been through, but I did have it hard. All we had was electricity. We had no running water or gas. We had to cut wood. I guess we lived like people did a long time ago. Nowadays, people think everything should be given to them. I wasn't spoiled. I had to haul water in 5 gallon buckets. It's not that it was so bad it made me appreciate things that I have now. Sometimes I still go back to where I come from (Oberlin, LA), because you can get soft in modern society. I had one pair of shoes and everything was hand-me-down. I notice when I talk to people in their 60s and 70s, they lived like I did in the 1980s. Their morals and values are different then say a 20 year old today, that never had to do that. My mother passed away from cancer when I was 17 and my father was shot and killed less then a year later. He lived by the sword and died by the sword. What he handed out, that's what was given back to him. He sold drugs, did whatever to survive. I didn't sulk about it, I felt, 'that's life'. That's one thing that made me a natural killer when I'm in the ring - I had life hard. People today that don't live where we lived don't understand that some of these parents are strung out on drugs and they say 'go to school.' How are you going to go to school when you're hungry, your momma has blown all the money, you have no clean clothes, nothing to eat in 3 days - how are you going to go to school? I can survive in the suburbs, but can those people survive where I come from? A person that can survive anywhere is a special type of person. I only have a 6th grade education. I can't read or write good, but I found out that you don't have to be educated to be smart. I didn't have that opportunity.
LR:Does your experience help you with your focus in boxing?
AW:Yes, but I also had a lot of good people that helped me out. When I'm in the ring though, I could probably get charged for terroristic threats if I told people how I really feel and what I'm trying to do. I have no conscience about what I'll do to you when I'm in the ring. I'm trying to survive and I'll destroy anything I come in contact with before it destroys me. I'm always focused. I'm focused now. I'm a natural killer. I will kill with no regrets.
LR:What got you started in boxing?
AW:Already being aggressive, I figured I might as well get paid for it. Shit, I'm not getting paid how I thought I would be getting paid. Maybe, I need to be more aggressive, shit. I know Women's boxing is new. There has to be a foundation laid first before pay is more like Men's boxing.
LR:What is the toughest challenge of being a female boxer?
AW:I find challenges in being a Black woman that is naturally strong and aggressive. Boxing is easy compared to what I've had to endure. I've had to endure things that people could never imagine. When you go through what I've been through, you will get broken in two, but I made it. Some of my siblings weren't as strong as I was so I had to hold them up and they would hold me up. We all went through a lot of this together. When I look back at what I've been through, people would say that it is not true. In order to eat, I had to steal, whatever just to damn eat. When I first moved to Austin, TX, I didn't have a social security card, birth certificate, I didn't have nothing - with 2 kids. The most miserable feeling in the world is around November when it starts to get cold and it's 6 or 7 at night and it's getting darker quicker then it usually does and you have no earthly idea where you are going to lay your head.
LR:How long were you homeless for and can you describe that experience?
AW:I was about 24 years old and was homeless for over a year. I slept on the goddamn concrete. If you can find a floor with carpet, shit, that's paradise, compared to sleeping in the grass. In the grass you get wet from the dew. When my parents died I got into bad trouble, some deep shit, so I came to Austin. I found out that my older brother that was living there had robbed an IHOP and another place and the police shot him in the back and he died. I went down there to find out what happened and when I got down there I thought it was a pretty cool place. If I went back home to Louisiana, I would not have survived. My mother was the kindest person you would ever meet and she instilled everything in us that a mother should. I don't make excuses and I want to tell young kids that they can come from nothing and make something with their life. I know it's not so easy that if you say it, it's done. The hardest thing I have to realize is that some of these kids are going to fall short and end up fucked up. They are already gone. That is why that if I don't box, if I don't eat, my kids will never do any stealing, killing, any of that shit. I make them work and I explain things. I teach them to appreciate electricity. I kick ass for them to have electricity and things I didn't. There are grown people that don't know what reality is. They've never been hungry. My daughters were 2 and 4 when we were homeless. The one that was 4, still remembers some of it. I tried to make the experience fun for them. I would work and then when it was cold we would ride the bus and read books. We would go where the prostitutes worked and you could get rooms by the hour at a cost of $3 or $4 an hour. They had no earthly idea how bad it was. For me, fuck eating, I wouldn't eat til my kids ate. I'd wash and iron their clothes. My kids didn't know what it was like to go hungry. I made it fun and taught them what reality was. My daughters are very respectful. I tell them something that no one can take away is you respecting yourself or another person. If that other person doesn't respect you, then that is their short coming.
LR:What are your thoughts on Mia St. John and Laila Ali?
AW:St. John is just a fighter. She puts on a pair of gloves and fights. As far as Playboy and things like that, I think it's good simply because there are different people that make up the world. That's what makes the world, the world. Ali brings her father's name so she brings more people that are interested. Whatever brings attention to our sport. If fighters use sexuality, whatever. If someone is putting their eyes on you, you're doing something right.
LR:3 years after your only loss (Valerie Mahfood), you were able to avenge that defeat. How did you feel going into the rematch and were you confident of a different outcome?
AW:I feel I'm always going to win because of how I tortured my body while training. This is what I go in the ring with. When I step in the ring, they know in their heart of hearts that I'm trying to kill their ass. You need to try to kill me and whoever is standing at the end, is the winner. I'm trying to break something in your ass. I can't even describe with words what I'm trying to do when I go in that ring. I'm going to try and break you for every minute of the fight. Some people don't have that mentality, but I do, I'm trying to break something on your ass. I'm trying to rip your head, trying to dig deep into your soul. If I have to whip your ass for 10 rounds, that's what I'll do. After the fight I'll say 'good fight.' I get so elated after I fight, I could pass out. It's like blowing up a balloon to the point it's going to bust. I find a lot of women don't fight with emotion, the ones that do, I'm like, 'aww, shit,' I know I'm in for a fight. I never underestimate an opponent. In fact, I've never said before any fight that I will beat that person.
LR:Describe the annihilation of Vonda Ward.
AW:The day before the fight, Vonda Ward pissed me off. When we got to stand toe to toe for the camera, it took all of my patience and everything it could not to hit her. 5 or 10 years ago, I would have killed her. At first she was trying to stare me down and make comments. I was like, 'bitch, I'll kill you.' Her manager was trying to stare me down, I was like, 'fuck you.' Then someone said they wanted to announce that after the fight Vonda Ward would be signing autographs. How in the hell can you say something like that when she hasn't even fought me yet. When I found out that she had already made plans to do certain shit, like she was just going to come in and whoop me, I really wanted to beat her ass. I never acted that way towards her. It took all I could when we stood together for the TV, knowing that tomorrow night this woman was going to punch me, I wanted to hit her right then.
LR:Is there any thing you would like to say to WTR readers or your fans?
AW:I would like people to know that I am a TRUE Junior Middleweight. I have never been beat in that weight class and have fought every weight class through the Light Heavyweight. I'm a true Junior Middleweight fighting all these big people. I don't have shit to lose. When I fought Vonda Ward she had everything to lose and I had everything to gain. She had no losses, I had one. I'm a bum, never had anything. I'm off the streets -hungry, homeless, motherless, fatherless, What have I got to lose? Shit, I'm living good now - I can turn on my lights, gas and water. I want people to know that I'm a compassionate, loving, caring person. I'm a lot of people's best friend, but I'll get after your ass. When I'm out of the ring, I'm helping troubled kids, feeding them when they may have not eaten in days. I'm in a rec center now (while doing this interview) with about 100 kids. This is life. I want to help people in need. I have 7 titles and if I could truly help one person not go through as much pain as I did, I'd give up all the titles. I want to walk among the people that have less. I have true happiness when I walk among people that don't have a lot and are struggling and I let them know I'm no better then them.
WTR would like to thank Ann for her time and openness. We look forward to following her continued destructions in the ring, as well as her altruism out of it.
» left by Jay Z. from Boston, MA (4 years 106 days ago.)
This woman is a killer diller! Respond to this comment
» left by yvonne tapscott from austin (4 years 84 days ago.)
I know Ann personally. I have the greatest respect for this woman. Against all odds she has triumphed and raised to very beautiful young ladies. Don't get it twisted, she is a monster in the ring! I love watching her fight. She is phenomenal!!! Respond to this comment
» left by CHARLES E. THOMAS from JAMAICA, NEW YORK (4 years 33 days ago.)
I LOVE ANN WOLFE. SHE REMINDS ME OF AN AFRICAN QUEEN. QUEEN NZINGHA(1582-1663) WAS A MILITARY LEADER WHO WAGED WAR AGAINST THE SAVAGE SLAVE HUNTING EUROPEANS FOR 30 YEARS ! ANN IF YOU ARE
READING THIS, I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU,ONE DAY ! Respond to this comment
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