A History of Women's Boxing

by Malissa Smith

  In women’s professional boxing outside of the United States, the growth of the sport has led to greater pay equity, media recognition, and fandom, along with more opportunities to fight and to earn a decent living. It has also meant that women holding championship belts hail from countries as far-flung as Japan, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina. This has led top-tier American fighters to travel to Europe and Latin America (especially to Mexico) to find quality fights.

  For American female professional boxers, on the other hand, the struggle is still day to day, with many of the same problems that have plagued women’s boxing for years. The fighters themselves, while not ready to go on the hunger strikes of the past, have a new militancy at work and are taking advantage of social media tools to popularize their case to the boxing world and to demand their place in the sport. The recent crescendo of voices applauding women’s mixed martial arts (MMA) is also causing the decision makers to rethink their conceptions of female boxing. But only the future will tell whether the sport’s landscape is ready for a push of women’s boxing onto a reluctant American broadcast media again.

  Boxing in general has a decreased viewership in the United States, and has been supplanted in many instances by televised MMA and other extreme fighting contests, which have shown a huge surge in popularity. In terms of viewership, women’s MMA has perhaps shown the greatest rise, with more bouts and more fighters than ever.

  Women’s MMA stars Ronda Rousey, Mischa Tate, and Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino are replacing the likes of Christy Martin, Mia St. John, Laila Ali, and Lucia Rijker as the superstars of women’s martial arts—to the point where Holly Holm, who has consistently led or been in the top ten of the pound-for-pound best female boxers lists for years, retired from boxing in 2013 to become an MMA competitor. Holm has garnered a 5-0 record in her new sport and may well be signed by the UFC soon. She is also beginning to capture a wider press exposure, something that had previously been limited to the boxing world.

  While women’s MMA fighters have begun to gain a lot of publicity beyond the sports pages, female boxers such as Alicia Ashley—who at forty-six is still winning highly competitive title belts over women half her age—are not. Kaliesha West—a twenty-five-year-old from California—is another boxing champion who, despite winning the IFBA super bantamweight title in October 2012, has yet to defend her title as of October 2013.

  Despite a boxing press that has become more inclined to write positively of female achievements, the stresses on professional female boxers have remained. They must work full-time jobs and often seek sponsorship, management, training, promotional opportunities, and fight matchups with little or no assistance. While this is not so dissimilar from the travails of male boxers at the lower end of the chain, the struggles for female boxers are all the harder because they are effectively closed out of opportunities to appear on television and must overcome continuing negative stereotyping of their efforts. Issues such as finally sanctioning three-minute rounds and twelve-round championships are also becoming an important part of that conversation.

  At Gleason’s Gym alone, professional boxers Alicia Ashley, Heather Hardy, Melissa Hernandez, Sonya Lamonakis, Belinda Laracuente, and Keisher McLeod-Wells all augment their boxing careers with income derived from working as trainers or helping manage the day-to-day operations at the gym. McLeod-Wells supplants her income with modeling jobs and also appeared on a reality television show about female boxers filmed in Mexico, while Lamonakis earns her regular living as a New York City school teacher in addition to the hours she puts in at the gym.

  Whatever the challenges, women continue to practice the sweet science with dedication and fortitude. Hundreds of thousands of amateur, professional, and recreational boxers the world over labor at their craft from the early hours of the morning until late at night. Each one of them is imbued with the courage and resilience necessary to find personal transformation and triumph in the ring.

  Boxing has persevered as a sport since the 1720s, with women among the first to embrace the wonders of the prize ring. That spirit of adventure continues to this day—and while the sport will inevitably twist and turn, the women of the squared circle will be there every step of the way.

  1. “Nicola Adams Wants More Coverage for Female Boxing.” TheBoxingScene.com. December 18, 2013, n.p. [boxingscene.com]

  Notes

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