Women Boxing

Women’s boxing is an especially obscure sport, even by the standards of most women’s combat sports. Its beginnings go back as early as boxing in general goes, but the growth of the sport has long been stunted by lack of popularity as well as outright public disapproval for women’s participation in such a violent sport. Not long after boxing became a regulated sport, many countries placed a ban on holding women’s boxing competitions. In England this ban was placed as early as 1890. Unlike men’s boxing, women’s boxing has largely stayed at an amateur level, for the obvious reason that it doesn’t generate nearly as much revenue.

Female Boxing

Women’s boxing did not have much of a history to speak of until the 1940s and 50s, when some young talents in women’s boxing began to emerge. The best-known among them is English-born Barbara Buttrick, who made a career for herself in the United States as the reigning champ of women’s boxing, a title that began with her defeat of Phyllis Kruger in 1957. She and Kruger were also the first women to hold boxing licenses in the state of Texas. It is said that by this point, she had fought in over 1,000 exhibition matches against male opponents and 18 against female ones, and that she had only lost one of them. Throughout her career, she achieved a number of firsts for women’s boxing, before becoming pregnant and leaving boxing behind to raise a family. She stayed involved in women’s boxing, however, as the founder and current president of the Women’s International Boxing Federation.

The next big name in women’s boxing would emerge in the 1970s, and would certainly eclipse Buttrick in her celebrity status during her heyday. This was Cathy “Cat” Davis, who was a sensation in the ‘70s as a sort of female boxing phenom who fought many televised matches and is also known as the only woman who ever made the cover of the boxing magazine, Ring. She is widely recognized as the most famous woman boxer in the public eye ever. Her popularity was also well in stride with the ardent feminist movements which were prevalent during her era.

Boxing Women

Cathy Davis’ star came crashing down by the end of the 1970s, however, when it became revealed that the vast majority of her fights had been fixed, and it became fairly clear that her image as the greatest woman boxer ever was largely just built up to generate fame and money. Her fall from grace proved a nasty blow for women’s boxing as a whole, as she had been by far the most widely known name in the history of women’s boxing.