Columnist Ron Kantowski: Island Girl left out of the loop for payday

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 9:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

As I sat waiting for Bob Arum to bring out the two-headed calf, an attractive woman, save for a slightly misshapen nose, strode up and asked who I and a media colleague were with.

Of course, being wise guys, we told her each other. The woman, on the other hand, said she was by herself but claimed she should have been among the luminaries on the dais for the announcement of "Million Dollar Lady," a fight featuring female boxers Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker at Mandalay Bay July 30 that will pay the winner $1 million, an unprecedented prize in women's pugilism.

The woman then introduced herself as Sumya Anani or "The Island Girl," as her Web site proclaims, which I find curious, in that she lists her hometown as Overland Park, Kan., which is just about as far from an island as one can get.

But Anani's fists apparently are as hard as coconuts.

In 1998, she beat Martin into a bloody pulp -- and has the pictures to prove it -- in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She hasn't fought Rijker, but then, said the Island Girl, that doesn't exactly make her unique. Anani says the only opponent of note Rijker has beaten is Hilary Swank, and that was in the movies. Rijker had a small part in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning picture "Million Dollar Baby."

"I'm 25-1-1 and avenged my only loss and draw," Anani said, looking for piece of pay-per-view pie. "(But) my biggest payday was $10,000. There should be ethics and principles, even in boxing."

Well, she almost had me, until she used boxing, ethics and principles in the same sentence, which confirmed she just doesn't get it. I'm told Martin is well past her prime -- provided she ever had one -- but then she has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Rijker has been in the movies. And that, apparently, is enough for a guy like Arum to massage into another $34.95 per-per-view bonanza.

"I may not have the name, but I can beat 'em both up," said Anani, who flew from Kansas City to Las Vegas to call out Martin and Rijker, much like Mitch "Blood" Green used to do to Mike Tyson in the streets of New York.

Only Anani told me that instead of making a scene, she planned to issue her challenge in private. When I left the news conference, I spotted her snapping photos of her would-be rivals as they posed with $1 million of Monopoly money.

Therein probably lies Anani's identity crisis. I don't recall Green ever calling out Tyson with a digital camera.

Four members of the Las Vegas Gladiators will appear in the soon-to-be-released remake of the football cult classic "The Longest Yard," which based on the team's recent playoff history, may be as close as they get to playing a meaningful football game in late May or early June.

It was Glads all over on the set of the Adam Sandler production, as Coco Blalock and Hardy Mitchell served as football doubles for the rapper Nelly and the professional wrestler Goldberg, two of the movie's stars. Gladiators Wilky Bazile and Lucas Yarnell appear as extras.

I find it curious that Goldberg would even need a football double. Somewhere, his wrestling colleague The Rock -- who went by Dwayne Johnson when he was playing defensive tackle for the Miami Hurricanes -- must be raising both eyebrows.

Former UNLV running back Larry Croom, who last year defied the odds in making the Arizona Cardinals' roster as an undrafted running back, is spending the summer with NFL Europe's Hamburg Sea Devils and is keeping a diary for the Cardinals' Web site.

He said last week's trip to Rhein was an enlightening experience. Literally.

"The most different thing I've discovered since being over here is that everybody smokes cigarettes," Croom wrote. "It's something I'm not used to. We'll be getting ready for a game and we'll see a guy lighting up a cigarette right next to our locker room. So that's definitely different."

Croom figures he'll have to keep his lungs free of carcinogens if he wants to stay in Phoenix another year as the Cardinals used their second pick in the draft to select running back J.J. Arrington of Cal.

"When I come back I'll be fighting for a spot, whether it's on special teams or wherever they need me to contribute to stay on the team," Croom wrote. "His situation is more of he'll be put in there and expected to take over the starting role."

Let's see if I have this right: Part of the reason the NCAA doesn't want a playoff is that it would extend the season and force its athlete-students to miss more classroom time. So then it goes and adds a 12th game to the schedule beginning in 2006.

Maybe Trev Alberts can explain that one to me.

At least UNLV is trying to make the most of the extra-game opportunity. One of the higher-ups within the athletic department told me the Rebels have entered negotiations to play a home-and-home series with either Arizona or Washington State of the Pac-10.

When it comes to putting local kids through college, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame scholarship luncheon, which will be held for the 20th time at Big Dog's on Friday, has become more vital than a six-pack of Red Bull on the eve of final exams.

The local chapter of the national organization, founded by former UNLV football coach and athletic director Bill Ireland, has raised more than $250,000 in scholarship funds for Las Vegas-area athletes. Each year three applicants receive $1,000 scholarships in the names of original board members Angelo Collis, Bill Morris and Tom Weisner, while two more local kids get $2,500 grants, courtesy of the NFL and the NFF.

This year, the big checks will go to Tierra McCullah and Andrew Hatch, both of Cimarron-Memorial High.

The money should really come in handy in the case of Hatch, a quarterback who turned down scholarship offers from several Division I schools to study at Harvard, which does not offer athletic scholarships.

Joe Blockovich, a retired local high school football coach, and former San Diego Chargers offensive lineman Tony Berti also will be recognized for their service to the local community. Berti and his wife Nikki created the "Goody Two Shoes" program, which provided 500 Southern Nevada Boys and Girls Club members with shoes, socks and backpacks.

Local tennis fans may want to keep an eye on Cristala Andrews, who this week qualified for her first pro tournament -- the Jaxons USTA Pro Circuit event in El Paso, Texas -- at the precocious age of 15.

Andrews, another of former UNLV star Tim Blenkiron's pupils and the daughter of Bagel Shop owner Savas Andrews, scored a three-set victory in the qualifying finals Monday to earn her way into the stepping stone professional event down in Marty Robbins country.

"After dominating in USTA junior national events, this is the obvious next step for a player her level," said Ryan Wolfington of VegasTennis.com.

Andrews recently returned from a six-month stint at the John Roddick (Andy's brother) tennis academy, although Roddick will continue to travel with her to tournaments.

I thought I had heard it all from today's pampered baseball players until Saturday, when the Dodgers' Jeff Weaver complained about not being yanked from the game by manager Jim Tracy while working on a five-hit shutout in the eighth inning.

Of course, this was after Weaver had turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-2 deficit by serving up a grand salami to the Braves' Adam LaRoche.

"I was absolutely as competitive to continue getting guys out as I was in the first inning," Weaver told the Los Angeles Daily News. "But just the way the inning went, the number of pitches I had (119) ... we had a lot of capable arms (in the bullpen) to get the job done."

What happened to being a Bulldog, like Orel Hershiser? You think Don Drysdale or Sandy Koufax ever groused because Walter Alston left them in the game too long?

John Fogerty had it all wrong when he wrote "Center Field," his paeon to baseball.

Instead of "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play," the lyric should have been "Take me out coach, I'm ready to sit."

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