The Most Avoided Woman in Boxing: Shawnee’s Sumya Anani continues to receive flowers for her historic boxing career

Sumya Anani and Barry Becker. // Photo Courtesy of Sumya Anani

Ducking, dodging, and weaving: Three skills that will make or break a boxer in the ring. The only way to avoid the inevitable swift jabs and heavy haymakers. This was no problem for four-time World Champion Sumya Anani. But for her female boxing peers, it was—Inside and outside of the arena.

By the early-to-mid-2000s, Anani held a record of over 20 wins, one draw, and one loss in her professional boxing career. She was a cat that girls simply did not want to catch a stray from. With no luck eluding her within the squared circle, boxers took to leaving contracts blank in order to save face, literally. She had become the most avoided woman in women’s boxing.

To think that Anani, or anyone, stepping into the ring on a random day would ultimately lead them to becoming a World Champion in the sport would be foolish, right? Well that is not too far off of how Anani got her foot in the door, or hand in the glove rather.

Back around 1992, Anani was in a gym in Overland Park when a man she had never met before approached her. He said, “You look like you just stepped off the boat from Jamaica. You should do something with those muscles besides just look good, you should box.”

This was the voice of Barry Becker—the man who she would later learn to call coach. At the time, she had never had an interest in boxing, and had never watched a boxing match outside of the action-packed, fan-favorite Rocky movies. It was going to take some time and patience from Becker, to say the least.

“I’m not a boxer, I’m a massage therapist, I’m a healer, I’m a mom,” Anani told Becker.

Courtesy of Sumya Anani

The Island Girl

Shortly after their first encounter, Anani decided to move to Jamaica, packing up her son and putting about 1,800 miles of flight time between her and her hometown of Shawnee, Kansas.

Anani spent much of her time near the Caribbean meditating and learning to find a sense of self, without electronics bogging

Courtesy of Sumya Anani

her down with distractions. The open sea and cool breeze were her counterparts, along with her young son Matthew.

On a casual day on the rock in 1996, about four years after her departure, Becker paid her a visit. Wielding a Sports Illustrated magazine, he tossed it in front of her, pointed, and said “You can beat her! I know you can beat her!” ‘Her’ was then 35-1-2 Christy Martin—The face of women’s boxing at the time and one of the only female boxers to ever claim the cover of the male-dominated magazine.

Searching for her why made Anani take a chance on Becker and boxing. She thought that just maybe this could be her calling. “This guy has been bugging me. Maybe God is trying to tell me something through this man, haha,” she says.

So she booked it back to the Midwest just three months later: No money, no car, living with her mother, attempting to support a child, and her first fight just three weeks away for $400.

“So I was 24 years old, picked up a pair of gloves, and fought my first fight three weeks later,” Anani says.

Spoiler alert: Under ring name, ‘The Island Girl,’ she won her debut, launching her into a 16-0 start to her career, claiming one of her most prolific accomplishments within her 13th career bout against Christy Martin.

Courtesy of Sumya Anani

The Martin Matchup

From the get-go, a fight against boxing’s golden girl was on Becker’s calendar—He just wasn’t sure where to check it off. Anani v. Martin was initially scheduled to be broadcasted on Showtime Championship Boxing in 1998, but politics got in the way.

Just three hours before the match was set to take place, Martin pulled out of the fight, leaving Becker and Anani in a state of frustration and confusion. In the midst of both parties encountering one another at the venue, words were exchanged.

Becker asked Martin if she was going to put on the gloves and step toe-to-toe with Anani. She responded with, “That’s like calling me a chicken.” Out of pure aggression, Martin rushed Becker, putting her hands on his neck, attempting a chokehold until Vegas security swarmed.

“That’s when I learned what a great trainer I have, because he didn’t knock her into a coma, which he would have if he would have hit her,” Anani says.

After pulling out of the first scheduled bout, Martin and her team were left with two options: Pay Anani outright and forget the fight, or schedule a new match within 30 days. They managed to fit another matchup within the time frame, though the rescheduling shifted what was supposed to be a pay-per-view Showtime event onto a much smaller cable network.

Fueled by Martin’s out-of-ring dance moves to get the fight rescheduled, and the fact that she put her hands on Becker, Anani took the most of her opportunity when she stepped foot against the well-known boxer, defeating her as Becker had prophesied.

“Every place I took her, she was a star. I told her ‘Sumya, you’re going to do this.’ And she did it, it was unbelievable,” Becker says.

Going The Distance

Concluding her professional boxing career with a record of 29-3-1 in 2006—having won titles in three separate weight classes—was nothing short of amazing for a right-handed and southpaw-style boxer who never stepped foot in a ring until 24 years old. But she could have never done it without her persistence, discipline, and amazing team behind her. Along with Becker, strength coach Steve Javorek is another large factor in her success.

“That’s a testimony to my trainer, but that’s also a testimony to my fear. I didn’t shirk on my workouts,” she says.

Courtesy of Sumya Anani

With her background in meditation and yoga, Anani went about, not only her training, but overall style of fighting and purpose in a completely different fashion than other boxers. She attributes five clusters of thought to how she perceives life and the art of boxing: Anger, judgment, fear, resentment, and guilt.

“I learned to direct that fear that I had in a positive way in the ring. So that I could focus my mind, not be distracted. That fear propelled me to train. I say this with a real sincerity, I don’t think any female trained as hard as I did, because of that fear,” she says.

“She knew this is not checkers, this is tear the girl’s head off, you have to stop her,” Becker says. “She had the punches and the combinations, she just worked on ‘em, and worked on ‘em, and worked on ‘em. That’s why she was so good, she was a workaholic.”

Since stepping away from the bright lights for the last time, Anani has received a considerable amount of flowers within the boxing community, having been inducted into the Women’s International Boxing Hall of Fame, USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame, and most recently, the National Boxing Hall of Fame.

Inducted alongside the likes of absolute legends within the boxing community, such as Evander Holyfield, Micky Ward, Roy Jones Jr., Barbara Buttrick, and others this past April, Anani was starstruck heading into the event, even with her historic accolades backing her.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to create sentences when I meet them, I’m gonna have to try really hard,” she laughed.

Anani has hung up the gloves, but don’t think that she has become some sort of couch potato since. She now owns and operates an exercise/health business geared toward the youth called Learning2Fly, which is located inside of Sunflower Gyrotonic off Johnson Drive.
She is also currently in the process of opening Chakra Circus—an 8,000 square ft. health center facility, also aimed at children’s health—as well as publishing a children’s book on the subject. Cemented in a career of unleashing pain onto others, now reemerged as the healer she always has been, Anani continues to use her Chakra ideology and perceptions of life in all of her ventures.