Secret scenes: Women's boxing
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By Lucy Powell
Posted: Tue Sep 12 2006 
Time out between rounds Women are walking into boxing gyms and asking to be trained all over the capital. My Gym launched in Finchley 15 months ago, and though its founders didn’t advertise it to women at all, they say there are now 40 women training there, almost as many women as men. It’s a story echoed in every other top gym in London including The Peacock in Canning Town, one of the most respected boxing establishments in England.
The controversy that shadows boxing is infinitely various. Some liken it to cockfighting, others describe it as the noblest of sports. As every boxer worth her gloves will tell you, boxing is way down the list of most dangerous sports: rugby, motor-sports and horse-riding all carry a greater risk of fatality. True, but those sports don’t require their participants to sustain and deliver repeated blows to the brain. Feature continues
AdvertisementThe British Boxing Board of Control’s chief medical officer, Dr Ashwin Patel, concludes that if you banned boxing, it would simply go underground: ‘Boxing is about regulating that desire to fight, and protecting the people who want to take part in it. People will always want to fight.’
And there’s the rub. Because the argument that women’s physical aggression is natural and uneradicable is far from self-evident. ‘It’s natural to me,’ says Shanee Martin. ‘I’m comfortable in the ring. I don’t fight people on the street and I’m not manly at all. But physical aggression is natural to me. Some men don’t like fighting either.’
Twenty years ago, Joyce Carol Oates described the female boxer as ‘a parody, she is a cartoon, she is monstrous’. Since then, films like ‘Million Dollar Baby’ and the bold presence of Laila [daughter of Muhammad] Ali have given the sport a much-needed injection of recognition, cash and glamour in America. But for some in the UK, it is still the case that a woman fighter isn’t just an incongruity, she is an oxymoron.
The best, and only, way to subvert that opinion, according to Brown and Martin, is through media exposure. Which is why they are thrilled that the forthcoming fight will be televised. ‘You want to see a good fight?’ asks Gary Logan, Brown’s trainer, ‘you watch Cathy take down Juliette Winter. It’ll be one hell of a tear-up.’ But ask why the friendly, diminutive Brown would want to tear up her good friend and sparring partner on live TV, and the most informative answer you’ll hear? ‘It’s boxing, love. It’s what I do.’
Juliette Winter fights Cathy Brown on Sept 24 at York Hall, Old Ford Rd, E2 (020 8980 2243).
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13 comments
Rooney's Boxing Gym in Holyrood Street, London SE1 2EL not only has women's only boxing classes on Tuesday and Thursday evening but also regular sparring for female boxers.
Current house pro Marianne 'Golden Girl' Marston regularly undertakes one-2-one training and sparring sessions. She is also Angel 'The Artist' McKenzies regular sparring partner.
for further info, photos or video on Marianne and the other girls at the gym go to www.rooneysgym.com
Check out my new social networking site for female boxers.
Share training tips, find sparing partners.
Arrange fights.
post footage of your own or someone elses fights.
1on1boxergirl.ning.com
Personally i still think that we as women should just stick two fingers up to mens boxing an start out on are own underground.
Why we keep waiting for then to except use into there world of boxing, i will never understand.
If we started doing it for use, there wouldn't be much they could do about it.
Stop waiting for men to approve of everything we do, an just do it.
@ Snippet....... that is the most sense i've ever hurd from anyone regarding women in general but especially when it comes to womens aggressive nature.
If we didn't already have the will to fight in use, then we simply would not have survived.
The fact that we can and do fight is just human nature, it's got nothing to do with what your sex is.
Women really do NEED places where they can get rid of there aggression, it's just not natural to keep it in.
Biologically for a woman to be aggressive is a very natural thing and in primitive societies would be what enabled her to survive. She would normally be stuck looking after infants and the male would not be anywhere around ( out hunting, reproducing with other females) . Therefore for a female to not be able to fight to protect herself and her young would reduce her chances.
Society today has become very artificial if we are questioning a woman's fighting ability or that it is not innate.
However ladies, consider using chest protection for any full contact sport as there is some medical evidence that there is a moderately increased risk of breast cancer with trauma to the tissue there. (Men after all have groin protection for many sports).
If you want a great women's boxing class, come down to Miguels Boxing Gym in Brixton. Classes are Saturday 1-3. Contact Simone Harvey simonepersonaltrainer@yahoo.com. Check out the gym, real deal boxing gym under railway arches http://www.miguelsboxinggym.com/
All women welcome of all abilities, shapes and sizes, really friendly, positive atmosphere
I am despreat to join a womens boxing club. Anybody got any details for a begginers womens boxing club in london?
I'd be gratefull for any information
I think that if they dont wanna see women fight, then we should start are own private fight clubs.
wouldn't be much thet could do about it then.
Then women could enjoy the fights together in each others company.
I dont understand why we keep looking for the approvale of men all the time.
i have always followed boxing, my uncle and cousins are champions, however as knowledgable as they are about the sport they cannot find me a female boxing gym, or a coach, just wondering if anyone knew of any up north
Womens boxing is here to stay. Trainers and clubs in the UK should back the up and coming fighters or it'll be yet another example of the UK being left behind.
sdsdffsgt
Joyce Carol Oates is definitely not Canadian.
personally,i feel in boxing women take more risk . it could be said that our bodies aren't built for such a "rough and rigid" sport but if they are aware of the risk and consequences then, let them get on with it.