Twenty-four years ago, in August 1998, women’s boxing was still banned in Britain. It was only in the middle of that month that, finally, Jane Couch became the first woman to be granted a licence to fight professionally by the British Boxing Board of Control. Couch had been forced to take the board to the high court where she won her case after male administrators tried to argue that women were too “emotionally unstable” and “frail” to become boxers.
On Saturday night, at the O2 in London, a different kind of history will be made as the first-ever all-female UK boxing card features 11 bouts and 22 women fighters. Claressa Shields, from America, and Britain’s Savannah Marshall will become the first women to headline a boxing promotion at the O2. Even more powerfully, their fight has the ingredients of a compelling contest which could echo some of the most intense and fierce rivalries between great male boxers.
