To Mike A. and Pustulio- Ill try to get something together to send to both of you. Please be patient I type one finger at time, and I want to get the dates fairly accurate, etc.


In the meantine, alonmg the libes of what we have been disucsing, Heres an interesting article on Sumya Anani's upcoming interview on DATELINE where she makes one final appeal to get LR to accept her challenge. Its very worthwhile reading. hope you enjoy.

This Sunday, on April 24, Sumya "The Island Girl" Anani will be featured on Dateline NBC with Stone Phillips. Check your local listing for the time that this will be shown.

Anani wrote the following:

As many of you may not know, I've had a lot of unsolicited press from the Million Dollar Baby movie. Stone Phillips came out to my house to interview me, and Paula Zahn from CNN is coming next week. I guess a fighter, I fought in the beginning of my career, Katie Dallam, might be the inspiration for the character Maggie in the Million Dollar Baby. (NY Times...3/9/05)
Katie and I fought in December 1996. I had only been boxing for a few months. She outweighed me by 37 pounds, and she had gotten involved in a bad car wreck the night before the fight. Neither Katie nor her trainer reported the car wreck to the ringside doctors. The choice she made to fight anyway proved almost fatal.

She fainted after the fight. She was rushed to the hospital. Her brain had massive swelling from a ruptured vein, and her skull had to be removed. I'm telling you this to prepare you for the pictures you might see. And to tell you that this story is not really about me per say...it will probably focus on Katie's recovery in the past 8 years. She has been through a lot.
There is some irony to this story, though I don't know how much of it will be aired on Dateline. As you all know, Lucia Rijker is in the movie Million Dollar Baby. I've been challenging Lucia publicly and privately for two years Well, since the movie's release has hit so big and won all these awards, Rijker has signed for the first million dollar payday in women's boxing history. She will fight Christy Martin, who I already beat back in 1998. Christy never would rematch me.

In my last public challenge to Lucia Rijker in the summer of 2004, I offered to fight Rijker for expenses only and donate my entire purse to charity. The charity I was going to donate the money to is Katie Dallam. I've always hoped to make money in boxing to help Katie financially.

I want to donate the money to her out of a sense of compassion. For many years, I was mad with them...How could they (her trainer and her) have made the choice to fight after being in a car wreck? Her trainer was in the car and sustained a serious bleeding head injury that required emergency care. Katie had no visible injury, but I've talked with many doctors. They tell me that she most likely suffered a subdural hematoma. What happens is the brain continues to move forward in the head on impact and actually bounces back and forth off the front/back or side to side of the skull. The injury remains hidden, but that is how many cases of 'brain bleed' start. Then, it didn't help matters to get hit in the head in a boxing match the next day.

I still can't believe the choice they made to fight. First of all, the life threatening and life changing position Katie was in. Second, the position they put me in...or any fighter for that matter. I believe that no matter who she fought that night, the results would have been the same. Boxing is not ping pong, and it's not swimming.

Of course, I don't know how much of the story will be aired on Dateline. Many news pieces sensationalize the story by downplaying the seriousness of the accident because she suffered no external injury. Sometimes they don't even say that she was even in an accident. Sometimes the stories make me into this great fighter and Katie was an innocent victim thrown in to the tiger. This is so far from the truth. I had only 3 fights, a few months of training, and no previous combative experience of any kind. Katie ran marathons, had been in the Armed Forces, and had been a kick-boxer. She was no stranger to the ring and no stranger to serious competition.

Anyway, just wanted to tell you a little about it, because they only have so much air time to fill.