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Sports correspondent & historian with |
When I first got involved with amateur boxing nearly four decades ago, the sport was strictly a male-only affair.
Women were prized for their administration skills and would take charge of the kitchen to feed participants during and after tournaments.
Gender inequality prevailed in most sports in the 1950s and 1960s, and it wasn’t until the 1972 Munich Olympics that women were deemed strong enough to run the 1500m on the track.
Women’s boxing was considered out of bounds until the 1990s, when the governing body was enlightened to see the benefits of women’s competition.
Taupō was the venue in 1997 for the first women’s national titles, with Karen Ellis and Caroline Sayle winning the first national women’s crowns.
I have always been in the corner of women’s boxing - until last Saturday night, when my granddaughter entered the ring at the QE Youth Centre, in the Battle of the Brave corporate boxing night.
It wasn’t that I had changed my views on women in boxing, it was just my paternal instincts towards my granddaughter, kicking in, to over-arch my love of the sport.
There was plenty of commitment on Izzy’s part, as she and her coach father crossed the ditch from the Sunshine Coast, to find an opponent for her first bout in the ring of combat.
A big shout-out from our family to her opponent, Mercedes, who also has the courage to engage in her first boxing contest.
While Izzy lost on a point’s decision in a close contest, she removed the itch of wanting to know what it felt like to engage in battle in the squared ring.
There was a return to past glory for her father, who had won the New Zealand senior lightweight title at the same venue 34 years previously.
Women’s boxing has made huge strides since its introduction to our country in 1997. Women and girls make up equal numbers in many gyms throughout the nation today.
The introduction of Olympic women’s boxing in London in 2012 raised the bar. Multiple BNZ National Champion, Alexis Pritchard, wrote her name into our Olympic history when she became just one of only seven Kiwi boxers to win an Olympic bout (or better).
Another to shine her light of success on our sport was Melanie Horn, who won a bronze medal at the first AIBA Women’s World Championships, held in the US in 2001.
The recent 2025 BNZ National Championships saw two Western Bay of Plenty women pugilists return home from the Wellington region with national titles.
Hannah Walker won the elite women’s lightweight crown while Charlie Jackson earned the youth light middleweight title at the Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua City.
The benefits of boxing training are many.
Fitness, weight loss, motivation, improved time-keeping and better general wellbeing are now attracting a multitude of women to boxing gyms around the country.
While a number of both men and women have a desire to test their combat skills, the vast majority of boxing gym attendees engage in the non-contact training side of our sport, which benefits the country’s wellbeing through improved health and other positive outcomes.