However unintimidating her appearance, though, know this: Those who underestimate Rochelle E.B. Gilken (her byline as a crime reporter for the Palm Beach Post) do so at their own risk.

So, what's the E.B. stand for?

"Evil Bitch," the Northeast High and Temple University graduate says in a voice that suggests sunshine and lollipops rather than steel and barbed wire. She's kidding, of course. Or maybe not.

"I think 'feisty' would be a good word to describe Rochelle," says her martial-arts-instructor brother, Solomon Brenner, 34. "She has that never-give-up attitude. Everybody in our family does. It's pretty interesting when we all get together. But Rochelle . . . I'm always impressed by anything she does, because she goes all-out to win.

"She trained under me and earned a black belt in karate. She boxes. Even the police reporting she does, she'll seek out gang members most people would cross the street to avoid if that's who she needs to talk to, to do her story the right way. She's absolutely fearless, and I think people respect that."

And now this subcompact human dynamo is taking on another challenge befitting the size of her heart, if not necessarily the rest of her. She's a contestant on NBC's "American Gladiators," pitting her resolve and inner strength against tall, muscular women with stage names like Hellga, Phoenix and Jet, all of whom look as if they could bench press an aircraft carrier.

Gilken's episode (we'll have to see whether there's more than one) already has been taped and will air on June 2. A confidentiality clause in her contract with the show prevents her from revealing anything more at this time than her participation, but the guess here is that Hellga, Phoenix and Jet no doubt learned that, where "Little Rocky" is concerned, good things often do come in small packages.

"Little Rocky," incidentally, is not something foisted upon her by the nickname-obsessed folks at "American Gladiators." Gilken has been called that by her coaches since she took up boxing in 2005, after she had moved to Florida, becoming good enough to advance to the championship bout of the women's flyweight division at the 2007 National Golden Gloves tournament. She entered the year No. 2 nationally in her weight class by USA Boxing, after being No. 1 last year.

"I'm from Philly and I'm obviously little," she explains. "My first name, Rochelle, literally translates to 'little rock,' so it's even more appropriate. I'd also like to think that when I hit people, they feel like they're getting hit with little rocks."

Gilken gets pelted right back, of course. She recently became the first female to win a "Barney," taking first place in the column division of the Boxing Writers Association of America writing contest for her first-person account of what it's like to enter the ring, and to taste her own blood and the cold slap of defeat as well as the exhilaration of victory.

In her award-winning article, which appeared in the Post on Nov. 27, 2007, Gilken describes boxing as "a violent addiction" in which she lives to land "that perfect shot" and has incurred "more bloody noses than I could count." She also writes about what it is to spar with much larger opponents, even the occasional 200-pound man, testing herself in ways that no other sport can replicate. But perhaps the most telling line is the one in which she notes that "I did not always win, but I never got beat."

"It's like Rocky Balboa says in that last movie," Gilken says. "It's not how hard you hit. It's how many hits you can take and keep coming forward."

Gilken said her boxing column was authored as a form of therapy after she lost, 3-2, in the National Golden Gloves final, a bout in which she had a point deducted by the referee for holding.

"I cried and cried," Gilken recalls. "When you put your heart and soul into something so much and come up short, it's devastating. You think nothing good will ever happen to you again. But you know what? It does."

In this instance, a chance to set things right came from "American Gladiators," which held an open audition on Feb. 9, only 7 months after Gilken's heartbreaking loss in the Golden Gloves.

"I had watched the show when I was a kid and loved it," she says. "When they brought it back last year, all I could think about was getting on. I love the idea of the small person going up against these big, imposing women. That really gets my adrenaline pumping.

"On the day of the audition, my husband, Justin, drove me 2 1/2 hours to Orlando. Then we stood in line for over 6 hours. There were all these really fit girls in sports bras and I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?' But when I did my tryout - which took maybe 2 minutes - I was shocked that I did better than a lot of the other women."

Gilken was contacted the next day and brought back for an on-camera interview. It obviously went well, because she passed through to the next round of eliminations, and the one after that, until she was flown to Los Angeles for what was tantamount to a military boot camp.

"To be on the same level as some of the other competitors blew my mind, because I was never an elite athlete," Gilken says. "Yeah, I ran in high school and did pretty well, but nothing exceptional. Yeah, I competed in karate and got my black belt, but I really wasn't anything special. In boxing, I'm better than most, but that's still fairly new to me. It's only in the last couple of years that I really stepped up my game."

Top prize for winning contestants is $100,000 and a 2008 Toyota Sequoia, as well as the chance to return next season as one of the resident Gladiators. But Gilken said she and her fellow competitors aren't motivated primarily by the thought of a six-figure payout and a new truck.

"It's the satisfaction that comes with doing something that you didn't think you were able to do," she says. "When you get right down to it, I didn't care how small I am, or how big they are. I was going to go as fast as I can, as hard as I can." *

Send e-mail to fernanb@phillynews.com.