Wolfe, who is 21-1 with 15 knockouts, says the fight wasn’t exactly her idea either. She wants desperately to make some big money by fighting Laila Ali, who is perhaps the only woman boxer who can sell tickets. But she claims Ali has been running from her, so she’s taking the money where she can get it.

And money means a lot to a fighter who says she sometimes got only one dollar for her bouts.

“I didn’t really want to fight boys; I didn’t want to fight a man,” Wolfe said. “But what else am I supposed to do?”

OK, here’s where Skipper is supposed to insert the line about women belonging in the kitchen. But that would make this too funny, and there’s nothing funny about either this fight or the way Wolfe approaches boxing.

The sport saved her from a life that was going nowhere, helped her channel her aggression and, she says, made her a better person. Her family was so poor as a child they had no running water or indoor toilet, and she’s proud she has made something of herself with only a sixth-grade education.

“Now people want to put me under the microscope, but I had to fight to eat, to sleep, to live, and nobody said nothing,” Wolfe said. “In the streets they’d say, ‘Ann is tough as hell, one tough son of a gun.’ I’ve been fighting all my life.”

Fighting is one thing. Being part of a circus act is another.

The fight at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum is billed as “Ann versus Man,” and will take place at 165 pounds. The purists may hate it, but it will likely sell to two kinds of people — those who want to see a woman put in her place and those who want to laugh at a man who can’t do it.

“This ain’t about fighting, it’s about living,” Wolfe said. “Some people don’t agree with it. But, after they speak to me they still may not agree, but they understand what is going on.”

They should, because it’s really not that hard to understand.

It’s just tough to stomach.

————

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org

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