Martin preparing for the fight
Secret scenes: Women's boxing
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By Lucy Powell
Posted: Tue Sep 12 2006 -
The Canadian author Joyce Carol Oates, in her 1987 book on the subject, wrote that ’boxing is only like boxing‘. Metaphorless, it floats all alone in the sea of modern sports; naked aggression, the unmasked will to overpower, and an undeniable, bone-crunching realism are at its heart. You cannot argue, as you might of some sports, that boxing is just a game. It is ancient, and ’it will never go away‘, in the words of one ex-boxer, since ’when you get angry, you hit. It‘s in our blood‘
Is it? ‘Well, not yours, you’re a girl,’ my pugilist friend grins. But women’s boxing is one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK, a phenomenon that has divided the boxing establishment. Last month, in search of its heart, I went along to Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham. Top of the bill was the fight between Juliette Winter, a 33-year-old from Derby, and Shanee Martin, a local girl, for the British Masters Superflyweight title. It was the first female Masters fight to be sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), and Winter won on points after eight long rounds, 79-75, in what a shocked, bow-tied referee agreed was the fight of the night. Feature continues
AdvertisementOne weird moment during the bout came close to crystallising the contradictory nature of women’s boxing. The two boxers were both sat in their corners between rounds, hair restrained in neat cornrows to stop it getting in their eyes, noses bloodied, cheekbones blooming with bruises. While they were busy swilling spit and blood into their respective buckets, a woman in a gold bikini and stilettos paraded round the ring, displaying the number of the round on a card above her head. The curvy card girl and the sweating female fighters looked like different species.
Shanee Martin (right) and Juliette Winter slug it out at Goresbrook Leisure Centre in Dagenham Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that women’s boxing seems an anathema to many. ‘I’m an old man, maybe,’ says one baffled ex-promoter, ‘but they’re both pretty girls – I don’t get why they’d want to break their noses.’ Frank Maloney, one of the most successful promoters in the UK, is less shy. ‘I don’t do with it,’ he says loudly, outside Winter’s changing-room. ‘Anyone who wants to watch women fight shouldn’t be given the vote.’
His opinion is quietly shared by many. Incredibly, women’s boxing was illegal in this country until November 1996, when the Amateur Boxing Association of England voted to lift a 116-year-old ban on the sport. And when Jane Couch, Britain’s Number One and a world welterweight champion, wanted a professional licence, she had to take the BBBofC to court to get it, in February 1998. She won, and 16 women now hold pro licences in Britain, though resistance remains. When asked whether the board is now happy to issue women with licences, Robert Smith, the BBBofC’s assistant general secretary, replies ‘We got taken to court, we lost, we have to.’ Among the amateurs, boxing remains the only sport in the Olympics in which women aren’t represented.
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23 comments
As a victim of abuse and rape, I would love to do this - I feel like kicking someone's arse everyday - might as well do it constructively.
Just wanted to clear up that she's not Canadian, but American (they are two seperate countries). Thanks!
I'm 13 and I want to become a good female boxer-I do want to fight and I want to encourage female boxing more! I live in Dorset does anyone know a club for female boxers? I'm currently a member at a club but me and only a few other girls train there none want to fight.
does anyone know of anywhere in birmingham i could train. I don't want to fight i just need get fit and have fun. Any help would be great :)
I'm male...not actually a boxer,but learning the basics at the momment.... I'm so intrigued by female boxers that I'd love to spar or even have a couple of rounds with a female boxer and test her skills.... I'm only 120 lbs but think I could block what ever is thrown my way, so Mariann, Dena,any female boxer please let me know if your interested in setting something up...even just a spar session.
Many thanks.
James.
U r not close to naked
Hey Carl,
I would love to talk to you about opening in Birmingham.
Check out our website and email me.
Dena Paolino
Hi.. I am all for ladies fighting in a competions including full contact kickboxing would love to open one in birmingham. If intrested would love feed back....
Being a professional female boxer I am obviously very happy with the increased interest in Women's Boxing - and hope that there may soon be another UK fighter at my weight!!.
Due to my love of the sport and desire to get more Women into boxing I have recently started offering Women only Boxing classes in London - see my website WWW.WOMENSBOXINGCLASSES.COM
WE JUST OPENED THE FIRST ALL-WOMEN'S BOXING GYM IN THE US and HOPE TO OPEN IN LONDON BY 2012!
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.STRIKINGBEAUTIES.COM.
ALL OF OUR INQUIRIES SAY JUST WHAT YOU ALL DID---WHERE CAN A WOMAN GO TO FIGHT? SPAR? TRAIN? OR JUST WORK OUT LIKE A REAL BOXER?
CHECK US OUT AND LEY US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!!
I have just viewed this page and the bloody broken noses and bruises, fat lips etc has made me feel a bit queasy for a minute, but its too late for me. The conviction to box has already come to me, and this shocking news (i thought it'd be painless being the weaker species ;s) won't put me off. No wonder theres an influx of females wanting to do this!! I wanna be in the olympics now!!
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).