DATE: Tuesday, October 21, 1997             TAG: 9710210061

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

THE SWEET SCIENCEEDGY PAY-PER-VIEW TV PACKS A POWERFUL NEW PUNCH AS FEMALE GLADIATORS STRAP ON THE GOVES AND GO AT IT

PAY-PER-VIEW is not for sissies or prudes. It's blood and guts, a peep show, the Rolling Stones in concert and women who climb into a boxing ring intent on beating each other silly.

Women who fight for pay have the world of sports buzzing. They're a hot attraction, rising in popularity on the broad shoulders of a 29-year old West Virginian who hasn't lost in 36 fights. The other night on ``20/20,'' ABC referred to Christy Martin and her sisters in the ring as the new gladiators. The women fight next on pay-per-view Friday. The tab is $19.95.

To this season's pay-per-view schedule, which includes the World Wrestling Federation's ``Badd Blood'' and ``Marilyn Chambers' Sexy Bloopers'' and ``The Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon Tour,'' comes ``Female Fistic Frenzy.''

The promoters insist that no woman fights who is pregnant. All the fighters take tests.

Yes, my friends, the women fight so hard and so savagely that it would be unthinkable to bring an unborn child into the ring. Like I said, pay-per-view is not for the genteel.

Among its prime attractions is the ``Ultimate Fighting Championship,'' which promoters insist is the world's most brutal sport.

Lawmakers in at least three states have moved to ban ultimate fighting with its choke holds and knees to the groin. The American Medical Association calls it ``morally abhorrent,'' which you can also say about Chambers' ``Incredible Edible Fantasies.''

While Cox Communications says no exact figures are available, it's safe to say that a fair number of the 400,000-plus cable subscribers in Hampton Roads plunk down $29.95 to see World Championship Wrestling's ``Halloween Havoc'' or come up with $11.95 for an ESPN college football package, and will pay $21.95 when ``Ultimate Fighting Championship XVI'' rolls around.

(The cost to see ``The Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon Tour'' on Dec. 12 from St. Louis is $19.95.)

While there is no stampede to pay-per-view, there are enough cable subscribers willing to spend $45.95 on a fight between heavyweights (Evander Holyfield vs. Michael Moorer on Nov. 8) or $3.95 on a movie to keep pay-per-view up and running.

Media watchers at Paul Kagan Associates in San Jose, Calif., say pay-per-view generated a shade over $1 billion in revenues in 1996, and Kagan expects the figure to triple by 2000.

Into this mix comes ``Female Fistic Frenzy'' on Friday from Lula, Mississippi, with eight bouts in which women weighing from 112 to 140 pounds compete. One of them is Bridgett ``Baby Doll'' Riley of Tarzana, Calif., who says she's strong enough to clean the clock of male fighters in her class, but will not challenge men.

Why? Because she believes they would out-muscle her, win on strength alone. Anyway, who needs men for opponents with so many women willing to crawl into the ring?

Riley's match with Tina Speakman of Atlanta, Ga., on Friday will be her fifth. The winner gets a shot at the International Female Boxers Association bantamweight title. It's been so far, so good for the former $540-a-day stuntwoman. ``I still have all my teeth,'' she said on the phone the other day.

``And I haven't had the need for plastic surgery.''

But there was a bad cut over her left eye in her fourth fight. Head butt. The cut's healed, she said, and there is not a mark on her.

``I'm hard to hit because I'm fast. I bob and weave, bob and weave.''

The women in the ring bob and weave less than men - they fight in two-minute rounds instead of three. The rules say women must wear chest protectors and gloves no lighter than eight ounces. And there's that pregnancy test.

Outside of that, women who box are like men who box but with longer hair. They train hard, sweat much, punch and counterpunch, bleed and knock each other out. ``I can crack,'' said the 24-year-old Riley, meaning that her fists have the power to break bones.

Riley was a black belt in karate, and had 23 bouts of kick-boxing behind her when she decided to be a prize fighter. Her inspiration is Martin, who is so good and so popular, she was booked on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno fight.

Martin suffered a broken nose in her last fight. She is not on the Oct. 24 Friday pay-per-view bill.

I asked Riley if hanging out in musky gyms and getting your head tattooed in the ring is what a young woman should be doing with her life. If she had a daughter, would Riley encourage her to enter a life in which she might face Jolene ``The Terminator'' Blackshear or Anissa ``The Assassin'' Zamarron?

``Absolutely,'' said Riley. ``Boxing gets you in shape and keeps you there. It challenges you mentally and builds character.'' And you're likely to come out of it with a nickname.

On Friday, it's Tracy ``The Lady'' Byrd against Bethany ``I'll Bring You'' Payne for the IFBA lightweight title. Cool. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

Event Entertainment

Bridgett "Baby Doll" Riley...

Tracy "The Lady" Byrd...\

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