Twenty-six professional fights over eight years. Twenty-four wins, sixteen by knockout. One loss, one no contest, and, by her own account, two years at the end when no one would fight her. In her own count she held and defended eight titles in four weight classes. The Boxing Blotter’s position is that she is the greatest woman boxer who ever lived. The record below is the argument, and the one missing fight is the part that stays open.
The loss came early. On November 30, 2000, Valerie Mahfood stopped her in the third round. Wolfe beat Mahfood twice after that, by decision in 2003 and again on August 20, 2005. Two of her next fights after the loss were wins, and then the title run started: the IFBA light middleweight belt over Vienna Williams on May 15, 2001, the WIBA belt over Gina Nicholas by third-round knockout that November, and the IFBA and WIBC super middleweight belts over Marsha Valley by stoppage in 2002.
On May 8, 2004 in Biloxi, Mississippi, she moved up to light heavyweight and fought Vonda Ward for the vacant WIBA and IBA titles. Ward was 18–0 with 17 knockouts and stood 6’6”. Wolfe stood 5’10”. Ward walked into one right hand in the first round and was done at 1:08. She lay on the canvas for several minutes and went to the hospital with a neck injury. Wolfe won both titles with that punch.
The fight that never happened is Laila Ali. Ali retired in 2007 at 24–0. The sides argued about it in public for years. In May 2004, Wolfe’s management said there was no agreement of any kind tying a Wolfe win over Ward to an Ali title shot. In September 2005, Ali said she would not fight under Wolfe’s promoter and would not take the fight for a large payout: “I won’t fight for anybody who disrespects me.” On June 7, 2006, Ali said she expected to fight Wolfe that October. Instead she fought Shelley Burton on November 11. Wolfe had last fought on June 4. Her own account of how it ended: “It got to a point where no one would fight me, so I retired.”
The comparison is not one-sided and the Blotter does not pretend it is. Ali stopped Mahfood both times they met, in 2002 and 2003. Wolfe beat Mahfood on the cards. Ali’s defenders point to that. Wolfe’s defenders point to the Ward knockout and to a fight that was never made. Claressa Shields has said publicly that Wolfe, not Ali, was the best of that era.
Read the record against the era. Women’s boxing was not in the Olympics when Wolfe turned pro in 1998. It did not get there until London in 2012, six years after she had stopped fighting. There was no national pipeline, no junior program, no deep amateur ranks of girls her own age to learn against. Her documented amateur record is four fights. Today’s champions start as children, in gyms full of other girls doing the same thing, with coaches, camps and a sanctioned path to a gold medal. Wolfe built herself from almost nothing and won titles at light middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight anyway.
The Blotter’s position: she would dominate this era too. Take the same right hand, the same punching power at 5’10”, and give her the structure that the current generation has. The only active-era name the Blotter believes could give her a real fight is Claressa Shields, and only Shields at her very best. That is a judgment, not a result, because the fight could never be made. It is the same kind of judgment the sport makes about men from different decades every day, and she has earned it.
After the ring she became a trainer, and the work is as documented as the fights. She trained James Kirkland, and an HBO series followed that camp. Her rule on who she works with: “I’ve never trained anyone that I haven’t known as a child.” Of Kirkland she says, “I knew Kirkland when he was 12.” She says she has put 160 kids through school and that some of them slept in the gym. She played the warrior Artemis in Wonder Woman in 2017.
The International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame inducted her in 2015. The record is 24–1–1 NC, and it stands without the Ali fight on it.