Although women have participated in
boxing
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
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. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
Historical overview

One of the earliest mentions of women's boxing is in the
travelogue 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.
One of the earliest known women's boxing matches to have been advertised in print was in London between
Elizabeth 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.
Women's boxing first appeared in the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
as a
demonstration sport
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events.
Demonstration sport ...
in 1904, in
St. Louis.
During the 1920s, Professor Andrew Newton formed a Women's Boxing Club in London.
However women's boxing was hugely controversial. In early 1926,
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...
borough council banned an arranged exhibition match between boxers
Annie Newton and Madge Baker, a student of
Digger Stanley.
An attempt to hold the match in nearby
Hackney 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."
The Home Secretary
Sir 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."
The story was reported across the country
and even internationally.
In 1988 the Swedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned events for women.
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.
The
British Boxing Board of Control refused to issue licenses to women until they issued one to
Jane Couch in 1998.
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 at
Streatham in London, between
Jane Couch and Simona Lukic. Couch won.

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. In October 2001 the first women's world amateur boxing championships,
called the
2001 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, were held in
Scranton, in the United States.

Women's boxing was not featured at the
2008 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 the
2012 Olympics, 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.
It was eventually decided (before the 2012 Olympics) to give women boxers the option of wearing shorts or a skirt.
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.
Nicola Adams of Great Britain won the world's first Olympic women's boxing gold medal.
On 14 September 2014, after defeating Croatian
Ivana 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.
[Brækhus first woman to unify division](_blank)
The Foreigner
In 2015 the
World Boxing Federation unified various women's titles to have one title holder.
In 2024,
Cindy Ngamba became the first boxer chosen for the Refugee Olympic Team; later that year she became the first medalist for the
Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympics, having won bronze in
women's 75 kg boxing at the
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
.
Algeria
On 9 August 2024, Algerian boxer
Imane Khelif defeated
Yang Liu of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
in the final to win an Olympic gold medal.
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 since
Mohamed Allalou in
2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
and the first to win a gold medal since
Hocine Soltani in
1996.
Khelif had been disqualified from the
2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organized by the Russian-led
International Boxing Association
The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is a sports organization that sanctions amateur boxing, amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate ...
(IBA) after failing unspecified
gender eligibility tests, along with boxer
Lin Yu-ting.
The
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
(IOC) and its Paris Boxing Unit criticized the disqualification as "sudden and arbitrary" and taken "without any due process".
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' stated, "It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed
n 2023to lead to the disqualifications."
The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the "specifics remain confidential".
The IBA's Olympic status was revoked in June 2023,
due to governance issues and perceived judging and refereeing corruption.
Argentina
In Argentina, women's boxing has experienced a notable rise in popularity, due in part to the presence of boxers such as
Alejandra Oliveras,
Marcela Acuna,
Yesica Bopp and
Erica Farias.
Australia
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. Boxing classes were being offered to women in Australia by 1892, at locations such as the Brisbane Gymnasium on
Turbot Street, close to the city's railway station. 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.
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
banned women's boxing from 1986 to 2009. Women's boxing was resumed in NSW with an exhibition fight between
Kaye Scott and Ramona Stephenson in October 2009. Women's boxing was legalized in
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
in 2000.
In 2002, Desi Kontos of South Australia became the first Australian woman to represent the country at the boxing world championships.
Naomi Fischer-Rasmussen was the first female boxer to represent Australia at the Olympics when she competed at the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
.
Caitlin Parker became the first Australian female boxer to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze at the
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
.
Canada
In 2023, women competed in boxing at the
Canada Games for the first time.
Talia Birch of Team Quebec and
Emily 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.
China
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 Association
super bantamweight belt by defeating Tanwarat Saengiamjit from Thailand. The match was held in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
.
Later that year,
Chang Yuan defeated Turkish boxer
Hatice Akbaş by 5–0 to win the gold medal in
women's 54 kg boxing at the
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
, which made Chang the first Chinese female boxer to win a gold medal at any Olympics.
Cuba
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 the
Revolution of Fidel Castro in 1959.
Czech Republic
In 2018
Fabiana Bytyqi became the first female boxer from the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
to win a major world title, when she defeated
Denise Castle to win the vacant
WBC atomweight title. The fight took place at the Sportcentrum Sluneta in
Ústà 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.
Gaza Strip
In 2019 the first female boxing club in the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
, the Palestinian Center of Boxing for Women, opened.
Ghana
Sarah Lotus Asare, the first female boxing matchmaker licensed under the Ghana Boxing Authority, debuted as a matchmaker on August 26, 2023.
India
Mary Kom
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom (born 24 November 1982) is an Indian Amateur boxing, Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Champions ...
of India is a five-time
World Amateur Boxing champion. She is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships.
Three Indian female boxers, namely,
Pinki Jangra,
Mary Kom
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom (born 24 November 1982) is an Indian Amateur boxing, Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Champions ...
, and
Kavita Chahal were placed in the world's top three in
AIBA world rankings (1 March 2014) in their respective categories.
Iran
Sadaf Khadem defeated French boxer Anne Chauvin in a boxing match in France on April 14, 2019; this made her the first Iranian woman to be part of an official boxing match.
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.
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".
Ireland
In 1997,
Deirdre Gogarty challenged
Bonnie Canino for the
Women's International Boxing Federation's Women's World Featherweight Championship. Gogarty won, making her the first Irishwoman to win any boxing world title; the fight occurred in the United States.
In February 1999, Deirdre Nelson, from
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...
, was granted a professional boxing licence by the
British Boxing Board of Control, which gave her the right to box anywhere within the
European Boxing Union
The European Boxing Union (EBU), formerly known as the International Boxing Union (IBU), is a pan-European governing body that sanctions championship bouts in professional boxing. The EBU governs the EBU European Championship, in addition to their ...
. However, the
Boxing 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 in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
) stated that the Boxing Union of Ireland had discriminated against Nelson, violating the Employment Equality Act of 1977.
In 2001, Irishwoman
Katie Taylor won the first officially sanctioned female boxing match in Ireland, at the
National Stadium, defeating Alanna Audley from
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
.
In 2012, the first year women competed in boxing at the Olympics,
Katie Taylor won an Olympic gold medal in boxing; she was the first ever Olympic female
lightweight
Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing.
Boxing Professional boxing
The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...
champion. In 2023, she defeated
Chantelle 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 boxer
Claressa Shields.
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.
Mexico
In 1998
Laura Serrano was supposed to fight in Mexico City, but the match was canceled due to a 1947 ban against women boxing in Mexico City.
The ban was eventually ended.
In 2015 Serrano became the first female Mexican boxer inducted into the
International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame.
In 2005 Mexican female boxer
Jackie Nava became the first woman to win a female world title fight sanctioned by the
WBC.
Norway
On September 14, 2014, after defeating Croatian
Ivana 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.
Netherlands
In 2019,
Lucia Rijker became one of the first three women boxers (and the first Dutch woman boxer) elected to the
International Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.
North Korea
In 2024,
Pang Chol-mi became the first North Korean woman to win any Olympic medal in boxing, winning a bronze medal.
Puerto Rico
In 2017, fighting on the
Shawn Porter vs.
Andre Berto undercard, Puerto Rican boxer
Amanda Serrano dominated Dahiana Santana en route to an eighth-round KO victory to win the vacant
World Boxing Organization bantamweight
Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports and weightlifting. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is .
The name for the class ...
belt, which made her the first female boxer to win world titles in five weight divisions.
Philippines
Nesthy Petecio won a silver medal in the inaugural
women's featherweight event at the
2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
, making her the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal in boxing.
Saudi Arabia
In 2022, Somalian boxer
Ramla Ali defeated
Dominican boxer
Crystal Garcia Nova in the first professional women's boxing match held in Saudi Arabia.
In 2023,
Ragad Al-Naimi became the first Saudi female professional boxer, by having her first professional fight; she won against
Perpetual Okaidah in a fight held in
Diriyah
Diriyah (; formerly romanization of Arabic, romanized as Dereyeh and Dariyya) is a towns in Saudi Arabia, town and governorate in Saudi Arabia. Located on the northwestern outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Diriyah was the original home of t ...
.
In 2024,
Skye Nicolson of Australia defeated
Raven Chapman of the United Kingdom in what was the first women's world title boxing fight held in Saudi Arabia and the first women's bout to be on a
Riyadh Season show. She won by unanimous decision.
Somalia
Ramla Ali was the first boxer to win an international gold medal while representing Somalia. Later, in 2021, she competed in the
women's featherweight event at the
2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
. Although she lost her first fight, she became the first boxer ever to represent
Somalia
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...
on the Olympic stage. In 2022, she defeated
Dominican boxer Crystal Garcia Nova in the first professional women's boxing match held in Saudi Arabia.
South Korea
In 2024,
Im Ae-ji became the first South Korean woman to win any Olympic medal in boxing, winning a bronze medal.
Sweden
In 1988, the Swedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned events for women.
Taiwan
Lin Yu-ting won an Olympic gold medal in boxing in 2024 after defeating
Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the final of the
women's 57 kg category (featherweight). With this win, Lin became the first Taiwanese boxer to win an Olympic gold medal.
Lin had been disqualified from the
2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organized by the Russian-led
International Boxing Association
The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is a sports organization that sanctions amateur boxing, amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate ...
(IBA) after failing unspecified
gender eligibility tests, along with Algerian boxer
Imane Khelif.
She was stripped of a
bronze medal
A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...
, which was instead awarded to Bulgaria's
Svetlana Staneva.
The
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
(IOC) and its Paris Boxing Unit criticized the disqualification as "sudden and arbitrary" and taken "without any due process".
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' stated, "It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed
n 2023to lead to the disqualifications."
The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the "specifics remain confidential".
The IBA's Olympic status was revoked in June 2023,
due to governance issues and perceived judging and refereeing corruption.
Later in 2023, Lin competed at the
Hangzhou Asian Games, where she won Taiwan's first gold medal in boxing at the event.
United Kingdom
One of the earliest mentions of women's boxing is in the
travelogue 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.
One of the earliest known fights to have been advertised in print was in London between
Elizabeth 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.
During the 1920s, Professor Andrew Newton formed a Women's Boxing Club in London.
However women's boxing was hugely controversial. In early 1926,
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...
borough council banned an arranged exhibition match between boxers
Annie Newton and Madge Baker, a student of
Digger Stanley.
An attempt to hold the match in nearby
Hackney 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."
The Home Secretary
Sir 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."
The story was reported across the country
and even internationally.
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.
Jane Couch became the first licensed female boxer in the United Kingdom in 1998. The
British Boxing Board of Control initially refused to grant Couch a professional licence on the sole ground that she was a woman, and argued that
PMS made women too unstable to box.
Claiming
sexual discrimination and supported by the
Equal Opportunities Commission, Couch managed to have this decision overturned by a
tribunal
A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a singl ...
in March 1998. However, some criticism followed; the
British Medical Association called this result "a demented extension of equal opportunities". The first sanctioned professional boxing match between women in the U.K. was in November 1998 at
Streatham in London, between Couch and Simona Lukic. Couch won.
In 2001,
Nicola Adams became the first woman boxer ever to represent England, which she did in a fight against an Irish boxer. In 2007 she became the first English female boxer to win a medal in a major boxing tournament, taking silver in the
European Championships. In 2008 she won a silver medal that was Britain's first women's world championship medal in women's boxing.
In 2009
Natasha Jonas became the first female boxer to compete for
GB Boxing.
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.
Representing Great Britain,
Nicola Adams won the world's first Olympic women's boxing gold medal.
This win also made her the first openly
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
person to win an Olympic boxing gold medal.
At the 2014
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...
,
Lauren Price became the first Welsh woman to win a boxing medal in the Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze.
In 2019 English boxer
Barbara Buttrick became one of the first three women boxers (and the first English woman boxer) elected to the
International Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.
In 2021,
Lauren Price became the first Welsh boxer of any gender to win an Olympic gold medal.
In 2022 two female boxers headlined at a major venue in the United Kingdom for the first time, which occurred at
the O2 Arena. That fight was a title unification bout between
Claressa Shields and
Savannah 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. As well, the fight headlined the first all-female boxing card in the United Kingdom. Later in the year,
Chantelle Cameron defeated
Jessica McCaskill in a match held in
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...
, making Cameron the undisputed world light-welterweight champion and the United Kingdom's first undisputed female boxing world champion.
Natasha Jonas won the
British 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.
On 6 May 2023,
Lauren Price won the first British women's title fight in professional boxing history, becoming the first female British
welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
champion and the first woman to receive a
Lonsdale Belt, by defeating Kirstie Bavington by unanimous points victory.
In October 2023,
Natasha Jonas became the first black woman to receive a manager's license from the
British Boxing Board of Control.
On 14 March 2024 it was announced that
Lauren Price would challenge
Jessica McCaskill for her
WBA,
IBO, and
''Ring'' female
welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
World titles on 11 May 2024 in Cardiff, Wales.
Price won the contest by unanimous
technical 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.
United States
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.
Women's boxing first appeared in the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
as a
demonstration sport
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events.
Demonstration sport ...
in 1904, in
St. Louis.
In 1954,
Barbara Buttrick was part of the first boxing match between two women on American national television.
In 1975, Caroline Svendsen became the first woman to receive a boxing license in the United States when she was granted one in
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
.
Also in 1975,
Jackie Tonawanda sued the
New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) for denying her a boxing license because of her gender. This resulted in the case ''Garrett v. New York State Athletic Commission'' (1975) at the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...
(Tonawanda was also known as Jacqueline Garrett) which was decided in her favor.
However, this did not overturn the law in New York against women boxing. But
Cathy Davis sued the
New 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 judge
invalidating 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 wrestling
exhibition
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...
with men."
In his opinion the judge cited the precedent set by ''Garrett 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.
In August 1978
Cathy Davis became the first woman to be on the cover of ''
The Ring''. On September 19, 1978, Davis received the NYSAC's first boxing license given to a female boxer.
In 1976, Pat Pineda became the first female boxer to be licensed in California.
In 1979, a lawsuit made California change its boxing regulations, which had limited women boxers to no more than four rounds.
During the 1980s, women's boxing briefly resurfaced in public notice in California due to the twin sisters
Dora and Cora Webber. They were world champions. Other women boxers went on hunger strikes to be noticed.
But the boom of women's boxing came during the 1990s, coinciding with the boom in professional women sports leagues such as the
WNBA and
WUSA, and with boxers such as
Stephanie Jaramillo,
Delia 'Chikita' Gonzalez,
Christy Martin,
Laila Ali,
Jackie Frazier-Lyde,
Bonnie Canino and
Sumya Anani, all world champions, jumping into the scene.
On 16 April 1992, after eight years in court in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
,
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. 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.
Dallas Malloy was denied an application by
USA Boxing due to being female. She sued and U.S. District Judge
Barbara Rothstein allowed her to box by granting a
preliminary injunction.
In October 1993, Malloy defeated Heather Poyner in the United States' first sanctioned amateur boxing match between two female boxers.
USA Boxing lifted its ban on women's boxing later in 1993.
When USA Boxing officially recognized women's boxing in 1993, it became the first organization to do so in the world.
Also in 1993,
Don King, the world-famous boxing promoter, signed American boxer
Christy Martin in October, making Martin the first female boxer to sign with King.
In 1995, the
New York Golden Gloves
The New York Golden Gloves is an amateur boxing tournament. It has long been considered by many boxing aficionados as one of the most elite Golden Gloves titles, along with the Chicago Golden Gloves. Named for the small golden Boxing glove, gloves ...
allowed women boxers to compete for the first time.
On March 16, 1996, a boxing match took place that is often called the fight that "put women's boxing on the map",
or "the bout that made women's boxing".
It was held in Nevada between American
Christy Martin and Irishwoman
Deirdre 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 of ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' on April 15, 1996;
the headline read, "The Lady Is a Champ".
In October 2001 the first women's world amateur boxing championships,
called the
2001 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, were held in
Scranton, in the United States.
On April 2, 2005
Becky Zerlentes was participating in the
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
State Boxing Senior Female Championships at the
Denver Coliseum in
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
. She was
knocked 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 County
coroner the cause of death was
blunt force trauma to the head.
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers.
At those Olympics,
Claressa Shields became the first American woman to win a boxing gold medal. As well,
Marlen Esparza became the first American woman to qualify for the Olympics in women's boxing when she qualified for those Olympics.
She went on to defeat
Karlha Magliocco, making her the first American woman winner of an Olympic boxing match, and to win a bronze medal, making her the first American woman winner of any Olympic boxing medal.
In 2014 the
International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame, located in America, held its first induction.
Claressa Shields won a gold medal in the women's middleweight division at the
2016 Olympics; as she had already won a gold medal (in the same division) at the
2012 Olympics, this made her the first American boxer of any gender to win consecutive Olympic medals.
Also in 2016,
Christy Martin became the first female boxer inducted into the
Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame.
American major boxing broadcasting network
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
broadcast its first women's bout, between Norway's
Cecilia Brækhus and America's
Kali Reis, on May 5, 2018, which Brækhus won.
In 2019 American boxer
Christy Martin became one of the first three women boxers (and the first American woman boxer) elected to the
International Boxing Hall of Fame; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.
In 2021, American
Claressa Shields defeated
Marie-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.
The first women's boxing match to headline Madison Square Garden, described as the 'biggest women's fight of all time', was held on April 30, 2022, between
Katie Taylor and
Amanda Serrano, with Taylor's undisputed lightweight titles on the line. Taylor defeated Serrano by
split decision.
In 2023, New York boxer Kathy "Wildcat" Collins became the first female boxer inducted into the
New York State Boxing Hall of Fame.
Also in 2023, American boxer
Claressa Shields became the first woman to win the
Best Boxer ESPY Award.
In 2024, President-elect
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
said in a keynote address for
Turning 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 a
boxing ring
A boxing ring, often referred to simply as a ring or the squared circle, is the space in which a boxing match occurs. A modern ring consists of a square raised platform with a post at each corner. Four ropes are attached to the posts and pulled p ...
? 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 boxers
Lin Yu-ting and
Imane Khelif "transitioned from men to women", and said their wins were "demeaning to women". He said about Khelif's win over Italian boxer
Angela Carini that "this beautiful young woman from Italy" fought against a "man".
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.
The sport has largely been supplanted by
Women's MMA, which is increasingly popular in the USA.
Differences between men and women's boxing rules
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.
In 2017 the president of the
World Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...
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."
As stated by the
International Boxing Association
The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is a sports organization that sanctions amateur boxing, amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate ...
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.
Women's boxing in pop culture
Until the 1990s, movies about female boxers were sparse and marketed as softcore
X-rated films to cater to the mainstream male gaze. However, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, movies such as ''
Blonde Fist'' (1991), ''
Shadow Boxers'' (1999), and ''
Girlfight'' (2000) were released and, according to scholar Camilla Fojas, changed boxing culture. The 2004 film ''
Million Dollar Baby'', about a female boxer, received seven nominations at the
77th Academy Awards and won four categories:
Best Picture,
Best Director (for
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
),
Best Actress (for
Hilary Swank), and
Best Supporting Actor (for
Morgan Freeman). It has since been cited as one of the best movies of the 2000s, the 21st century, and
of all-time.
Women's boxing has also been the topic of some books, for example
Leah Hager Cohen's ''Without Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight'' (2005).
See also
*
List of current female world boxing champions
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, bu ...
*
List of female boxers
*
List of IBF female world champions
*
List of WBA female world champions
*
List of WBC female world champions
*
List of WBO female world champions
*
List of WIBO world champions
*
Women Boxing Archive Network
*
Women's boxing in Australia
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Women's Boxing Archive Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Boxing