 Anne-Sophie Da Costa andTina Rupprecht boxing, 2017 | |
| Also known as | Pugilism |
|---|---|
| Focus | Punching,Striking |
| Olympic sport | Yes, as of the2012 Olympics |
Although women have participated inboxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport.[1][2][3] Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.[4]
One of the earliest mentions of women's boxing is in thetravelogue of a German man who visited London in 1710. While taking in a men's boxing match, he met a woman in the audience who claimed to have previously boxed another woman in the same venue.[5]
One of the earliest known women's boxing matches to have been advertised in print was in London betweenElizabeth Wilkinson and Hannah Hyfield in 1722. Billing herself as the "European Championess", Wilkinson and her husband would also fight other mixed couples as a pair, with Wilkinson fighting the other woman, and her husband fighting the other man. In those days, the rules of boxing allowed kicking, gouging and other methods of attack not part of today's arsenal.[6]
Women's boxing first appeared in theOlympic Games as ademonstration sport in 1904, inSt. Louis.[7]
During the 1920s, Professor Andrew Newton formed a Women's Boxing Club in London.[8] However women's boxing was hugely controversial. In early 1926,Shoreditch borough council banned an arranged exhibition match between boxersAnnie Newton and Madge Baker, a student ofDigger Stanley.[9][10][11] An attempt to hold the match in nearbyHackney instead was defeated by a campaign led by the Mayor of Hackney, who wrote, "I regard this proposed exhibition of women boxers as a gratification of the sensual ideals of a crowd of vulgar men."[11] The Home SecretarySir William Joynson-Hicks was among those opposing the match, claiming "the Legislature never imagined that such a disgraceful exhibition would have been staged in this country."[9] The story was reported across the country[12] and even internationally.[13]
In 1988 the Swedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned events for women.[14]
In 1997 the British Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned its first boxing competition for women. The first event was meant to be between two thirteen-year-olds, but one of the boxers dropped out because of hostile media attention. A month later, an event was held between two sixteen-year-olds.[14]
TheBritish Boxing Board of Control refused to issue licenses to women until they issued one toJane Couch in 1998.[15] By the end of the century, however, they had issued five such licenses. The first sanctioned professional bout between women in the U.K. was in November 1998 atStreatham in London, betweenJane Couch and Simona Lukic. Couch won.[16][17]
The International Boxing Association (amateur) accepted new rules for women's boxing at the end of the 20th century and approved the first European Cup for Women in 1999 and the first World Championship for women in 2001.[18] In October 2001 the first women's world amateur boxing championships,[19] called the2001 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, were held inScranton, in the United States.[20]
Women's boxing was not featured at the2008 Olympics; however, on 14 August 2009, it was announced that the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board (EB) had approved the inclusion of women's boxing for the Games in London in the2012 Olympics,[21][22][23] contrary to the expectations of some observers. Around these (2009) hearings, in conjunction with AIBA (International Boxing Association), the International Olympic Committee agreed to include three additional women's weight classes to the 2012 London Olympic Games. A new "gender-appropriate" women's boxing uniform was being created at the time, which would have required women (under AIBA rules) to wear skirts during competition. The issue was widely ignored by the public until amateur boxer and London student Elizabeth Plank brought the issue to light. She created a petition at Change.com to end the gender-based mandatory uniforms.[24] It was eventually decided (before the 2012 Olympics) to give women boxers the option of wearing shorts or a skirt.[25]
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the2012 Summer Olympics, in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.[26][27][28][29]Nicola Adams of Great Britain won the world's first Olympic women's boxing gold medal.[30]
On 14 September 2014, after defeating CroatianIvana Habazin,Cecilia Brækhus became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship belts in her weight division (welterweight) in boxing history.[31]
In 2015 theWorld Boxing Federation unified various women's titles to have one title holder.[32]
In 2024,Cindy Ngamba became the first boxer chosen for the Refugee Olympic Team;[33] later that year she became the first medalist for theRefugee Olympic Team at the Olympics, having won bronze inwomen's 75 kg boxing at the2024 Summer Olympics.[34][35][36]
On 9 August 2024, Algerian boxerImane Khelif defeatedYang Liu ofChina in the final to win an Olympic gold medal.[37][38] Khelif therefore became Algeria's first female gold medalist in boxing, as well as the country's first boxer of any gender to win a medal sinceMohamed Allalou in2000[39] and the first to win a gold medal sinceHocine Soltani in1996.[37][40]
Khelif had been disqualified from the2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organized by the Russian-ledInternational Boxing Association (IBA) after failing unspecifiedgender eligibility tests, along with boxerLin Yu-ting.[41] TheInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and its Paris Boxing Unit criticized the disqualification as "sudden and arbitrary" and taken "without any due process".[42][43][44]The Washington Post stated, "It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed [in 2023] to lead to the disqualifications."[45][46] The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the "specifics remain confidential".[47] The IBA's Olympic status was revoked in June 2023,[48] due to governance issues and perceived judging and refereeing corruption.[47][49]
In May 2025,World Boxing announced the implementation ofsex verification testing for all athletes in events sanctioned by the group; its announcement specifically singled out Khelif by saying she would be barred from competing until she underwent genetic sex screening.[50] World Boxing's presidentBoris van der Vorst apologized to the Algerian federation for what it perceived as a violation of her privacy.[51][52] Khelif had intended to return to international competition at the Eindhoven Box Cup in June 2025. However, following World Boxing's announcement of mandatory sex testing, tournament officials reported that Khelif had not registered for the event.[53][54][55] In August 2025, she appealed the World Boxing decision. On September 1, the Court of Arbitration for Sport publicly acknowledged the appeal, but refused her request to suspend the World Boxing decision until the case was heard. As a result, Khelif was unable to participate in theWorld Boxing championship that started on September 4, 2025.[56]
In Argentina, women's boxing has experienced a notable rise in popularity, due in part to the presence of boxers such asAlejandra Oliveras,Marcela Acuna,Yesica Bopp andErica Farias.[57]
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created.[58] Boxing classes were being offered to women in Australia by 1892, at locations such as the Brisbane Gymnasium onTurbot Street, close to the city's railway station.[59] While classes may have been offered for women, serious training was not permitted for women by the 1900s and women were banned from pursuing the sport in a competitive way. Women were also barred from attending boxing matches.[60]New South Wales banned women's boxing from 1986 to 2009.[61] Women's boxing was resumed in NSW with an exhibition fight betweenKaye Scott and Ramona Stephenson in October 2009.[62] Women's boxing was legalized inQueensland in 2000.[63]
In 2002, Desi Kontos of South Australia became the first Australian woman to represent the country at the boxing world championships.[64]
Naomi Fischer-Rasmussen was the first female boxer to represent Australia at the Olympics when she competed at the2012 Summer Olympics.[65][66]
Caitlin Parker became the first Australian female boxer to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze at the2024 Summer Olympics.[67][68]
In 2023, women competed in boxing at theCanada Games for the first time.[69]Talia Birch of Team Quebec andEmily Vigneault of Team Alberta won the first Canada Games gold medals for boxing in their divisions; Birch won in the 52-kg female division and Vigneault won in the 60-kg female division. Those were the only female divisions in boxing in the 2023 Canada Games.[70][71]
In 2024, Ruru Yang Sheau-ru became Hong Kong's first woman professional boxer to win a world title, due to winning the Women's International Boxing Associationsuper bantamweight belt by defeating Tanwarat Saengiamjit from Thailand. The match was held inBangkok.[72]
Later that year,Chang Yuan defeated Turkish boxerHatice Akbaş by 5–0 to win the gold medal inwomen's 54 kg boxing at the2024 Summer Olympics, which made Chang the first Chinese female boxer to win a gold medal at any Olympics.[73]
In 2022 women became allowed to participate officially in the sport of boxing in Cuba, for the first time since they were banned from doing so during theRevolution of Fidel Castro in 1959.[74][75]
In 2018Fabiana Bytyqi became the first female boxer from theCzech Republic to win a major world title, when she defeatedDenise Castle to win the vacantWBCatomweight title. The fight took place at the Sportcentrum Sluneta inÚstí nad Labem, on 22 September 2018. She won the fight by unanimous decision, with two judges awarding her a 100–90 scorecard, while the third judge awarded her a 99–91 scorecard.[76][77][78]
In 2019 the first female boxing club in theGaza Strip, the Palestinian Center of Boxing for Women, opened.[79][80]
Sarah Lotus Asare, the first female boxing matchmaker licensed under the Ghana Boxing Authority, debuted as a matchmaker on August 26, 2023.[81]
Mary Kom of India is a five-timeWorld Amateur Boxing champion. She is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships.[82]
Three Indian female boxers, namely,Pinki Jangra,Mary Kom, andKavita Chahal were placed in the world's top three inAIBA world rankings (1 March 2014) in their respective categories.[83]
Sadaf Khadem defeated French boxer Anne Chauvin in a boxing match in France on April 14, 2019;[84] this made her the first Iranian woman to be part of an official boxing match.[85][86] However, the Iranian Boxing Federation distanced itself from the match and released a statement reading:
As women's boxing is not a sanctioned sport of the Islamic Republic of Iran Boxing Federation, the organization, training, and participation in this sport is not related to this federation and it is the organizer and participant's responsibilities.[87]
Following the match, Khadem had plans to return to Iran, but lingering rumors of potential arrest warrants kept her in France. Khadem's representative told Reuters that authorities had issued arrest warrants against her. Hossein Soori, the head of Iran's boxing federation, denied Khadem would be arrested, attributing the information to "media linked to Saudi Arabia".[88]
In 1997,Deirdre Gogarty challengedBonnie Canino for theWomen's International Boxing Federation's Women's World Featherweight Championship.[89] Gogarty won, making her the first Irishwoman to win any boxing world title; the fight occurred in the United States.[90]
In February 1999, Deirdre Nelson, fromCounty Antrim, was granted a professional boxing licence by theBritish Boxing Board of Control, which gave her the right to box anywhere within theEuropean Boxing Union. However, theBoxing Union of Ireland forbid her to box until guidelines on women's boxing were issued by the European Boxing Union in September 1999. In 2001 Nelson won a sex discrimination case against the Boxing Union of Ireland due to this; she was awarded £1,500 in compensation. The Employment Equality Authority (based inDublin) stated that the Boxing Union of Ireland had discriminated against Nelson, violating the Employment Equality Act of 1977.[91][92]
In 2001, IrishwomanKatie Taylor[93] won the first officially sanctioned female boxing match in Ireland, at theNational Stadium, defeating Alanna Audley fromBelfast.[94][95] In 2012, the first year women competed in boxing at the Olympics,[27]Katie Taylor won an Olympic gold medal in boxing; she was the first ever Olympic femalelightweight champion.[96][97] In 2023, she defeatedChantelle Cameron; this win made Taylor the second female boxer, and the first Irish female boxer, to be an undisputed champion in two weight classes; the first was the American female boxerClaressa Shields.[98][99][100]
In 2020 and 2024,Kellie Harrington won a gold medal in boxing at the Olympics; this made her the first Irish boxer to win consecutive Olympic gold medals.[101][102]
In 1998Laura Serrano was supposed to fight in Mexico City, but the match was canceled due to a 1947 ban against women boxing in Mexico City.[103][104][105] The ban was eventually ended.[105][106] In 2015 Serrano became the first female Mexican boxer inducted into theInternational Women's Boxing Hall of Fame.[107]
In 2005 Mexican female boxerJackie Nava became the first woman to win a female world title fight sanctioned by theWBC.[108][109][104][110][111]
On September 14, 2014, after defeating CroatianIvana Habazin,Cecilia Brækhus became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship belts in her weight division (welterweight) in boxing history.[31]
In 2019,Lucia Rijker became one of the first three women boxers (and the first Dutch woman boxer) elected to theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.[112][113]
In 2024,Pang Chol-mi became the first North Korean woman to win any Olympic medal in boxing, winning a bronze medal.[114]
In 2017, fighting on theShawn Porter vs.Andre Berto undercard, Puerto Rican boxerAmanda Serrano dominated Dahiana Santana en route to an eighth-round KO victory to win the vacantWorld Boxing Organizationbantamweight belt, which made her the first female boxer to win world titles in five weight divisions.[115][116]
Nesthy Petecio won a silver medal in the inauguralwomen's featherweight event at the2020 Summer Olympics, making her the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal in boxing.[117]
In 2022, Somalian boxerRamla Ali defeatedDominican boxerCrystal Garcia Nova in the first professional women's boxing match held in Saudi Arabia.[118][119]
In 2023,Ragad Al-Naimi became the first Saudi female professional boxer, by having her first professional fight; she won againstPerpetual Okaidah in a fight held inDiriyah.[120]
In 2024,Skye Nicolson of Australia defeatedRaven Chapman of the United Kingdom in what was the first women's world title boxing fight held in Saudi Arabia[121] and the first women's bout to be on aRiyadh Season show.[122] She won by unanimous decision.[123][124][125]
Ramla Ali was the first boxer to win an international gold medal while representing Somalia.[126] Later, in 2021, she competed in thewomen's featherweight event at the2020 Summer Olympics. Although she lost her first fight, she became the first boxer ever to representSomalia on the Olympic stage.[127] In 2022, she defeatedDominican boxer Crystal Garcia Nova in the first professional women's boxing match held in Saudi Arabia.[118][119]
In 2024,Im Ae-ji became the first South Korean woman to win any Olympic medal in boxing, winning a bronze medal.[114]
In 1988, the Swedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned events for women.[14]
Lin Yu-ting won an Olympic gold medal in boxing in 2024 after defeatingJulia Szeremeta of Poland in the final of thewomen's 57 kg category (featherweight). With this win, Lin became the first Taiwanese boxer to win an Olympic gold medal.[128][129]
Lin had been disqualified from the2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organized by the Russian-ledInternational Boxing Association (IBA) after failing unspecifiedgender eligibility tests, along with Algerian boxerImane Khelif.[41] She was stripped of abronze medal, which was instead awarded to Bulgaria'sSvetlana Staneva.[130] TheInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and its Paris Boxing Unit criticized the disqualification as "sudden and arbitrary" and taken "without any due process".[42][43][44]The Washington Post stated, "It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed [in 2023] to lead to the disqualifications."[45][46] The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the "specifics remain confidential".[47] The IBA's Olympic status was revoked in June 2023,[48] due to governance issues and perceived judging and refereeing corruption.[47][49] Later in 2023, Lin competed at theHangzhou Asian Games, where she won Taiwan's first gold medal in boxing at the event.[131]
One of the earliest mentions of women's boxing is in thetravelogue of a German man who visited London in 1710. While taking in a men's boxing match, he met a woman in the audience who claimed to have previously boxed another woman in the same venue.[5]
One of the earliest known fights to have been advertised in print was in London betweenElizabeth Wilkinson and Hannah Hyfield in 1722. Billing herself as the "European Championess", Wilkinson and her husband would also fight other mixed couples as a pair, with Wilkinson fighting the other woman and her husband, the other man. In those days, the rules of boxing allowed kicking, gouging and other methods of attack not part of today's arsenal.[6][132]
During the 1920s, Professor Andrew Newton formed a Women's Boxing Club in London.[8] However women's boxing was hugely controversial. In early 1926,Shoreditch borough council banned an arranged exhibition match between boxersAnnie Newton and Madge Baker, a student ofDigger Stanley.[9][10][11] An attempt to hold the match in nearbyHackney instead was defeated by a campaign led by the Mayor of Hackney, who wrote, "I regard this proposed exhibition of women boxers as a gratification of the sensual ideals of a crowd of vulgar men."[11] The Home SecretarySir William Joynson-Hicks was among those opposing the match, claiming "the Legislature never imagined that such a disgraceful exhibition would have been staged in this country."[9] The story was reported across the country[12] and even internationally.[13]
In 1997 the British Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned its first boxing competition for women. The first event was meant to be between two thirteen-year-olds, but one of the boxers dropped out because of hostile media attention. A month later, an event was held between two sixteen-year-olds.[14]
Jane Couch became the first licensed female boxer in the United Kingdom in 1998.[133] TheBritish Boxing Board of Control initially refused to grant Couch a professional licence on the sole ground that she was a woman, and argued thatPMS made women too unstable to box.[15][134] Claimingsexual discrimination and supported by theEqual Opportunities Commission, Couch managed to have this decision overturned by atribunal in March 1998.[135][136] However, some criticism followed; theBritish Medical Association called this result "a demented extension of equal opportunities".[137] The first sanctioned professional boxing match between women in the U.K. was in November 1998 atStreatham in London, between Couch and Simona Lukic. Couch won.[16][17]
In 2001,Nicola Adams became the first woman boxer ever to represent England, which she did in a fight against an Irish boxer.[138] In 2007 she became the first English female boxer to win a medal in a major boxing tournament, taking silver in theEuropean Championships.[139] In 2008 she won a silver medal that was Britain's first women's world championship medal in women's boxing.[140]
In 2009Natasha Jonas became the first female boxer to compete forGB Boxing.[141]
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the2012 Summer Olympics in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.[26][27][28][29] Representing Great Britain,Nicola Adams won the world's first Olympic women's boxing gold medal.[30] This win also made her the first openlyLGBT person to win an Olympic boxing gold medal.[142]
At the 2014Commonwealth Games,Lauren Price became the first Welsh woman to win a boxing medal in the Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze.[143][144][145]
In 2019 English boxerBarbara Buttrick became one of the first three women boxers (and the first English woman boxer) elected to theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.[112][113]
In 2021,Lauren Price became the first Welsh boxer of any gender to win an Olympic gold medal.[146][147]
In 2022 two female boxers headlined at a major venue in the United Kingdom for the first time, which occurred atthe O2 Arena. That fight was a title unification bout betweenClaressa Shields andSavannah Marshall. Shields won via unanimous decision with two judges scoring the fight 97–93 and one scoring it 96–94, all in favor of Shields to become the undisputed middleweight world champion.[148][149][150][151] As well, the fight headlined the first all-female boxing card in the United Kingdom.[152] Later in the year,Chantelle Cameron defeatedJessica McCaskill in a match held inAbu Dhabi, making Cameron the undisputed world light-welterweight champion and the United Kingdom's first undisputed female boxing world champion.[153][154]
Natasha Jonas won theBritish Boxing Board of Control’s 2022 British Boxer of the Year award, which made her the first woman to win the British Boxing Board of Control's British Boxer of the Year Award.[155]
On 6 May 2023,Lauren Price won the first British women's title fight in professional boxing history, becoming the first female Britishwelterweight champion and the first woman to receive aLonsdale Belt, by defeating Kirstie Bavington by unanimous points victory.[156][157][158]
In October 2023,Natasha Jonas became the first black woman to receive a manager's license from theBritish Boxing Board of Control.[159][160]
On 14 March 2024 it was announced thatLauren Price would challengeJessica McCaskill for herWBA,IBO, andRing femalewelterweight World titles on 11 May 2024 in Cardiff, Wales.[161][162] Price won the contest by unanimoustechnical decision after an accidental clash of heads that took place in the fifth round caused an injury to McCaskill's eye and she was ruled unable to continue at the start of round nine. This win made Price Wales’ first female professional boxing world champion.[163][162]
In 1876, the first women's boxing match was held in the United States. In this match Nell Saunders defeated Rose Harland. Her prize was a silver butter dish.[164]
Women's boxing first appeared in theOlympic Games as ademonstration sport in 1904, inSt. Louis.[7]
In 1954,Barbara Buttrick was part of the first boxing match between two women on American national television.[165][166]
In 1975, Caroline Svendsen became the first woman to receive a boxing license in the United States when she was granted one inNevada.[166]
Also in 1975,Jackie Tonawanda sued theNew York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) for denying her a boxing license because of her gender.[167] This resulted in the caseGarrett v. New York State Athletic Commission (1975) at theNew York Supreme Court (Tonawanda was also known as Jacqueline Garrett) which was decided in her favor.[168] However, this did not overturn the law in New York against women boxing.[169] ButCathy Davis sued theNew York State Athletic Commission in 1977 because she was denied a boxing license because she was a woman, and the case was decided in her favor later that year, with the judgeinvalidating New York State rule number 205.15, which stated, "No woman may be licensed as a boxer or second or licensed to compete in any wrestlingexhibition with men."[170][171] In his opinion the judge cited the precedent set byGarrett v. New York State Athletic Commission (1975), which "found the regulation invalid under the equal protection clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions". The NYSAC filed an appeal of the ruling, but later dropped it.[168][170] In August 1978Cathy Davis became the first woman to be on the cover ofThe Ring.[172][173] On September 19, 1978, Davis received the NYSAC's first boxing license given to a female boxer.[174]
In 1976, Pat Pineda became the first female boxer to be licensed in California.[175]
In 1979, a lawsuit made California change its boxing regulations, which had limited women boxers to no more than four rounds.[166][176]
During the 1980s, women's boxing briefly resurfaced in public notice in California due to the twin sistersDora and Cora Webber. They were world champions. Other women boxers went on hunger strikes to be noticed.[177]
But the boom of women's boxing came during the 1990s, coinciding with the boom in professional women sports leagues such as theWNBA andWUSA, and with boxers such asStephanie Jaramillo,Delia 'Chikita' Gonzalez,Christy Martin,Laila Ali,Jackie Frazier-Lyde,Bonnie Canino andSumya Anani, all world champions, jumping into the scene.[178][179][180][181][182]
On 16 April 1992, after eight years in court inMassachusetts,Gail Grandchamp won her battle to become a boxer, as a Massachusetts state Superior Court judge ruled it was illegal to deny someone a chance to box based on gender.[183] During her battle to win the right to box as an amateur, she passed the age of 36, the maximum age for amateur fighters. Even though she knew it would not help her as an amateur, Grandchamp continued her efforts, and eventually did box professionally for a time.[184][185][186][187]
Dallas Malloy was denied an application byUSA Boxing due to being female. She sued and U.S. District JudgeBarbara Rothstein allowed her to box by granting apreliminary injunction.[188] In October 1993, Malloy defeated Heather Poyner in the United States' first sanctioned amateur boxing match between two female boxers.[189][190]USA Boxing lifted its ban on women's boxing later in 1993.[188][191] When USA Boxing officially recognized women's boxing in 1993, it became the first organization to do so in the world.[192][193]
Also in 1993,Don King, the world-famous boxing promoter, signed American boxerChristy Martin in October,[194][195] making Martin the first female boxer to sign with King.[196][197]
In 1995, theNew York Golden Gloves allowed women boxers to compete for the first time.[166][198]
On March 16, 1996, a boxing match took place that is often called the fight that "put women's boxing on the map",[199][200] or "the bout that made women's boxing".[201] It was held in Nevada between AmericanChristy Martin and IrishwomanDeirdre Gogarty. The fight was won by Martin, in a six rounds unanimous decision, and led to her featuring as the first female boxer on the cover ofSports Illustrated on April 15, 1996;[202] the headline read, "The Lady Is a Champ".[203]
In October 2001 the first women's world amateur boxing championships,[19] called the2001 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, were held inScranton, in the United States.[20]
On April 2, 2005Becky Zerlentes was participating in theColorado State Boxing Senior Female Championships at theDenver Coliseum inDenver. She wasknocked out in the third round by her opponent, Heather Schmitz, fell unconscious, and died without regaining consciousness. This made Zerlentes the first woman known to have died of injuries sustained during a sanctioned boxing match in the United States. According to the Denver Countycoroner the cause of death wasblunt force trauma to the head.[204][205]
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the2012 Summer Olympics in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.[26][27][28][29] At those Olympics,Claressa Shields became the first American woman to win a boxing gold medal.[206] As well,Marlen Esparza became the first American woman to qualify for the Olympics in women's boxing when she qualified for those Olympics.[207] She went on to defeatKarlha Magliocco, making her the first American woman winner of an Olympic boxing match,[208] and to win a bronze medal, making her the first American woman winner of any Olympic boxing medal.[209]
In 2014 theInternational Women's Boxing Hall of Fame, located in America, held its first induction.[210][211]
Claressa Shields won a gold medal in the women's middleweight division at the2016 Olympics; as she had already won a gold medal (in the same division) at the2012 Olympics, this made her the first American boxer of any gender to win consecutive Olympic medals.[212]
Also in 2016,Christy Martin became the first female boxer inducted into theNevada Boxing Hall of Fame.[213][214][215]
American[216] major boxing broadcasting networkHBO broadcast its first women's bout, between Norway'sCecilia Brækhus and America'sKali Reis, on May 5, 2018, which Brækhus won.[217][218]
In 2019 American boxerChristy Martin became one of the first three women boxers (and the first American woman boxer) elected to theInternational Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.[112][113]
In 2021, AmericanClaressa Shields defeatedMarie-Eve Dicaire and thus became the first boxer in the four-belt era to hold undisputed titles in two weight classes, and the first female boxer ever to be an undisputed champion in two weight classes.[219][98][220]
The first women's boxing match to headline Madison Square Garden, described as the 'biggest women's fight of all time',[221] was held on April 30, 2022, betweenKatie Taylor andAmanda Serrano, with Taylor's undisputed lightweight titles on the line.[222][223] Taylor defeated Serrano bysplit decision.[224]
In 2023, New York boxer Kathy "Wildcat" Collins became the first female boxer inducted into theNew York State Boxing Hall of Fame.[225][226]
Also in 2023, American boxerClaressa Shields became the first woman to win theBest Boxer ESPY Award.[227]
In 2024, President-electDonald Trump said in a keynote address forTurning Point USA, "There's a spirit that we have now that we didn't have just a short while ago. Sadly, we didn't have. Who the hell can have spirit watching women get beat up in aboxing ring? I don't think that's spirit, right? We're going to end that one quick! We're going to end it very quickly. We're going to end that one very quickly." Trump had previously falsely said boxersLin Yu-ting andImane Khelif "transitioned from men to women", and said their wins were "demeaning to women". He said about Khelif's win over Italian boxerAngela Carini that "this beautiful young woman from Italy" fought against a "man".[228]
Professional women's boxing has declined in popularity in the United States and struggles to get viewership and sponsorship. Many women boxers have to fight in Mexico or Europe to make a good living.[229][230][179][231] The sport has largely been supplanted byWomen's MMA, which is increasingly popular in the USA.[179][232][233]
Women's boxing matches are usually ten rounds at most, with two minutes per round, while men's boxing matches are twelve rounds of three minutes each.[234][235] In 2017 the president of theWorld Boxing Council stated, "The WBC will not sanction any bout for women if rounds are scheduled for 3 minutes, and will not sanction any bout scheduled for 12 rounds."[236]
As stated by theInternational Boxing Association Technical Rules and Competition Rules:
– head guards are necessary for female boxers of any age;
– a breast guard is advised for female fighters in addition to a pubic (crotch) guard;
– pregnant sportswomen are not allowed to engage in combat.
British rules require all female boxers to wear 10-ounce gloves, while male boxers are required to wear 8-ounce gloves for all divisions up to welterweight and 10-ounce gloves only above welterweight.[234]
Until the 1990s, movies about female boxers were sparse and marketed as softcoreX-rated films to cater to the mainstream male gaze. However, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, movies such asBlonde Fist (1991),Shadow Boxers (1999), andGirlfight (2000) were released and, according to scholar Camilla Fojas, changed boxing culture.[237] The 2004 filmMillion Dollar Baby, about a female boxer, received seven nominations at the77th Academy Awards and won four categories:Best Picture,Best Director (forClint Eastwood),Best Actress (forHilary Swank, who played the boxer), andBest Supporting Actor (forMorgan Freeman). It has since been cited as one of the best movies of the 2000s, the 21st century, andof all-time.[238][239]
Women's boxing has also been the topic of some books, for exampleLeah Hager Cohen'sWithout Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight (2005).[240]
World Boxing identified a specific individual by name … President of World Boxing has written personally to the President of the Algerian Boxing Federation to offer a formal and sincere apology … avoid linking the policy to any individual.
