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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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.