Famous Female Boxers Who Owned the Game in the US
"Boxing is a gentleman's sport," an antiquated sentiment widely propagated in times of yore. If not in true form, then maybe in some movie, but we have all seen the boxing ring and the huge and bulky boxers fighting to win glory and championships. While the sport has evolved and grown over time to Olympic proportions, it's not just the men who represent the squared ring today.
Boxing is one of the sports that has been deservingly claimed by female professionals who can perform with incredible technique and, quite literally, jaw-dropping precision. We are proud to inform our readers that the US is home to some of these trained warriors with deadly fists and jaws made of steel. Read on to know anything and everything fascinating about some of the best out of the baddest female boxers that have existed in the land of the brave!
History of female boxing in the US
Boxing has been reported to have been brought to the United States in the seventeenth century from England and begun in the United States in the nineteenth century, which eventually led to the United States being the main epicenter of the entire boxing profession and professional boxing matches in the early and mid-twentieth century.
Boxing was a predominantly male sport owing to the popular belief of considering the game as involving a lot of manpower. The first women's boxing match was a brutal one and was played in the 1880s in the United States for the first time between Hattie Leslie and Alice Leary, resulting in the former player as the winner. This match was played in New York in 1888. Although this sounds like boxing has existed in the US for quite a few centuries now, it was not before the 1970s that women's boxing was recognized under the umbrella of professional boxing. During this time, women were unlisted from the nonprofessional and amateur categories of boxing and were allowed to play professionally and were given a license to do so. The first few famous female players of this era include Cathy 'Cat' Davis, Jackie Tonawanda, and Marian “Tyger” Trimiar.
The initial days of professional and licensed boxing for women saw a huge surge in fans and audience, which even led to Cathy 'Cat' Davis being on the cover page of the popular magazine of that time called Ring Magazine. This popularity and excitement for women’s boxing in the US continued for up to the decade of the 2000s till the time of the infamous players like Laila Ali and Christy Martin. After the brief surge in popularity amongst the masses, the watch time of the sport fell for women boxers in the new millennium of 2000. This has been accredited to the lack of proper promotion and advertisement on television and other media channels. Low popularity and interest in watching female boxing adversely affected the lives of female boxers in the US until the year 2012 when the situation reversed. Female boxing was introduced as a part of the Olympic Games.
Famous female boxers in the US
Since the first female boxing match ever played in 1888 in the US, there have been quite a few eminent personalities in the sphere of female boxing in the United States. A few of them are listed below.
1. Laila Ali
Inheriting the meticulous boxing skills from her father, Laila Ali has been an active female boxer in the United States and reigned over the industry for about eight years, from 1999 to 2007. She has been regarded as one of the greatest female boxers of all time and has retired after serving as an undefeated female US boxer in the course of her career. She holds auspicious titles such as the WIBA (Women’s International Boxing Association), WBC (Women’s Boxing Council), IWBF (International Women’s Boxing Federation), and the IBA (International Boxing Association) female super middleweight titles, plus the IWBF light heavyweight title. Laila Ali now serves as a famous television personality.
2. Christy Martin
Christy Renea Martin has been a professional American female boxer for quite a long span of time, starting from 1989 all the way up to 2012, after which she retired from the sport. Martin started to play boxing as a professional sport at the age of 21. She has been a recipient of the WBC (Women’s Boxing Council) female super welterweight title, which was awarded to her in 2009. Christy Martin is known as the first woman to be on the ballot of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020. She was also elected Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016. A piece of famous news revolves around the name of Christy Martin wherever her name is mentioned. She was stabbed and shot by her own husband, James (Jim) Martin, in 2010, after which her husband was accused of second-degree attempt to murder and is spending his 25 years of imprisonment in jail.
3. Mia St. John
Mia Rosales St. John has been a professional boxer in the US and played for about a span of 5 years starting from 1997. She has been an IBA (International Boxing Association) lightweight champion and an IFBA (International Females Boxing Association) lightweight champion. She has also been awarded the WBC (Women’s Boxing Council) championship in the super welterweight category. She acquired her nickname ‘The Knockout’ after she beat Angelica Villain in her first match on February 14, 1997, when she was 29 years old. Mia John was featured on the cover page of Playboy magazine’s November 1999 edition, flaunting her feminine side and telling the world that being an athlete does not lessen the feminine personality of a woman athlete. However, this took a critical turn in her career when the boxing press nicknamed her the ‘Busty Bunny Boxer’ after her bold photoshoot for Playboy magazine. St. John also had to undergo two surgeries to remove a blood clot in one of her legs after she met with an accident while skiing. After her retirement from professional boxing, she now works as a model and a businesswoman. She is also a well-known taekwondo champion.
4. Claressa Shields
Claressa Shields is an upcoming female boxer of American origin and started her professional boxing career recently in 2012 when she played at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and won the gold medal in the women’s middleweight category. Following this meticulous victory, Claressa won the World Championship gold medal in boxing in 2014. Claressa Shields is the only boxer, be it a male boxer or a female boxer, to possess all the four most prestigious titles in the world of boxing, which include WBC (Women’s Boxing Council), WBA (Women’s Boxing Association), WBO (World Boxing Association) and the IBF (International Boxing Federation) super middleweight titles. She is the first boxer of American origin to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic games. In the most recent rankings of boxers around the globe done in July 2022, Claressa Shields has been ranked as the best and most active female professional boxer in the world. ESPN and The Ring regard Claressa as the second-best, most active female boxer in the world.
5. Hannah Fox
Hannah Lee Fox is a former American female boxer. She played her first professional boxing game on December 26, 1997. She has been nicknamed ‘The Vegas,’ making her full name ‘Hannah The Vegas Fox.’ She suffered her first setback in her career after she lost a fight with Fredia Gibbs in January 1999, after which she emerged back into the game and ended up being the IFBA’s (International Females Boxing Association) top-ranked challenger in the whole boxing world. She achieved her dream of becoming the IFBA’s (International Females Boxing Association) world junior welterweight champion in 1999. After realizing her aim, she retired from professional boxing and has not looked back ever since. Throughout her professional boxing career, she has seen only wins and three knockout wins in all matches except for one single loss, making her one of the best female boxers the United States has ever witnessed.
Wrapping Up
Female boxing in the US dates back almost 2 centuries. While it still is lagging behind many other sports and their categories in some statistics, with the advent in popularity of MMA and wrestling amongst the masses, the industry is on the rise. Boxing is an immensely famous and one of the most watched sports globally and in the US. It is almost time, as we are almost a quarter through the 21st century that we give equal craze and importance to female boxing as well and give the love and attention all those amazing female boxers deserve! So, promise yourself that you will enjoy female boxing with the same amount of joy and craziness as you enjoy male boxing! Visit Womenwire.com for more information related to sports and the women who're making their name playing them.