Ann Wolfe Biography

Ann Brown Sugar Wolfe is an American boxer who has been Women's World Champion eight times. She is noted as the hardest puncher in women's boxing and one of the fastest in the sport as a whole.Ann Wolfe was born on January 17, 1971, in Oberlin, Louisiana. Her family was desperately poor and had no access to gas or modern plumbing. Wolfe's physical strength was tested from an early age as she chopped wood and hauled five gallon buckets of water from the well. Hungry and uncomfortable in her threadbare clothes, she rarely made it to school, especially when her mother became ill and she took on the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Her mother died from cancer when she was seventeen years old and her father, who had sold drugs in order to support the family, was shot and killed a year later. With no one to support her and no education to help her get a job, Wolfe stole in order to feed her family.When she was twenty-four, with two young children of her own, Wolfe went to Austin, Texas, to look for her older brother, only to discover that he had robbed an IHOP and been shot in the back by police officers, and died shortly afterward. Nevertheless, she remained in the city, seeing more opportunity there than in Louisiana, though her lack of a social security card or birth certificate, together with her illiteracy, made it impossible to find work. She spent a year homeless, desperately trying to find money to feed her children and pay bus fares so they could ride around and be warm on winter nights.It was boxing which turned Wolfe's life around. After moving to Waco she began to compete in local events and went on to participate in the 1998 USA National Championships in California, reaching the semi-finals. She then moved into the professional sport with a fight against Brenda Bell Drexel, which she won one to four. Subsequent victories over Dakota Stone, Demetra Jones, and Mary Anne Almager marked her as a promising new talent, and her defeat by future world champion Valerie Mahfood did little to discourage her. It was the last time she would lose. Uninterested in fame, she was fighting simply to make enough money to eat, and she was noted for her intense focus, as well as her ferocious strength.In 2001, Wolfe beat Vienna Williams to win her first major title, the Junior Middleweight. She went on to beat Gina Nicholas to take the Light Middleweight title and avenge herself against Mahfood to take World Super Middleweight. Knocking out Vonda Ward to take the World Light Heavyweight title in 2004, she broke Henry Armstrong's record for the most boxing world titles held at the same time.Having achieved so much in such a short time, Wolfe's problem now is that she can't find suitable opponents. She has repeatedly challenged Mohammed Ali's daughter Laila Ali, but their managers have failed to agree on a financial arrangement that would allow the fight to take place. She has also requested the chance to take on male boxers but has found local regulations and many of those involved in the sport's ruling bodies against her.Unable to make a reliable living from fighting, Wolfe has expanded her career to include giving motivational talks and providing training. She runs her own gym where she also provides opportunities for local inner city children, letting them use the facilities for free, provided they regularly show her report cards to demonstrate that they are doing well at school.