Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields and Amanda Serrano have helped transform women’s boxing into something previous generations could only have dreamed of.
They have headlined major events, attracted enormous television audiences and demonstrated that women’s boxing deserves the same attention and respect as the men’s side of the sport.
And quite rightly, they are celebrated for those achievements.
But whenever we discuss the remarkable growth of women’s boxing, there is something that increasingly bothers me.
We sometimes talk about the modern generation as though women’s boxing didn’t exist before they arrived.
It did.
In fact, women’s boxing history is filled with remarkable fighters who faced obstacles that today’s champions, thankfully, no longer have to confront to the same extent.
Some struggled to find promoters willing to take them seriously. Others fought for opportunities that male boxers simply took for granted. And in Britain, women once had to challenge the authorities just to obtain the right to box professionally.
Without those pioneers, the modern success story might look very different.
So why aren’t we talking about them more often?
Barbara Buttrick: A Pioneer Before Women’s Boxing Had a Platform
If we’re going to discuss women’s boxing history properly, Barbara Buttrick deserves to be among the first names mentioned.
Born in Yorkshire in 1930, Buttrick began boxing during an era when the idea of women competing in the sport was widely dismissed.
This wasn’t simply a question of whether female fighters could attract television audiences or sell tickets.
For many people, women shouldn’t have been boxing at all.
Buttrick refused to accept that attitude.
Nicknamed the Mighty Atom because of her small stature, she competed internationally and became one of the earliest recognised female world boxing champions.
She fought at a time when women’s boxing lacked the structures, opportunities and institutional support that existed for men.
There were no major promotional campaigns designed to establish female boxing stars. No established pathway towards Olympic medals. And certainly nothing resembling the commercial opportunities available to today’s leading fighters.
Yet Buttrick persevered.
Her importance extends beyond what she achieved inside the ring. She subsequently helped preserve and promote women’s boxing history, including through the Women’s International Boxing Federation.
That matters because a sport cannot build a future if nobody is prepared to defend its past.
Buttrick wasn’t simply an early female boxer.
She helped establish the idea that women belonged in the ring in the first place.
Christy Martin: The Fighter Who Forced Boxing to Pay Attention
By the 1990s, women’s boxing had made progress, but it remained a long way from mainstream acceptance.
Then came Christy Martin.
Martin brought something to women’s boxing that promoters and television executives could no longer ignore.
Excitement.
Her aggressive fighting style, willingness to exchange punches and ability to entertain audiences made her one of the sport’s most recognisable figures.
Her breakthrough appearance on the undercard of Mike Tyson’s 1996 contest against Frank Bruno introduced her to a much wider audience.
Importantly, Martin wasn’t attracting attention simply because she was a woman participating in a traditionally male sport.
People were watching because she could fight.
And that distinction was crucial.
For too long, women’s boxing had been treated as a novelty rather than a legitimate sporting contest.
Martin helped challenge that perception by demonstrating that female fighters could produce compelling action and generate genuine public interest.
Of course, increased exposure didn’t suddenly eliminate the inequalities surrounding women’s boxing.
Female fighters still struggled with limited opportunities, inconsistent promotion and considerably smaller financial rewards.
Nevertheless, Martin helped open a commercial door that had previously been almost completely closed.
I’ve previously explored her extraordinary life and the film depicting her story here:
Her story also serves as a reminder that boxing careers cannot always be judged solely by victories, defeats and championship belts.
Sometimes a fighter’s greatest contribution is changing how an entire sport is perceived.
And Christy Martin undoubtedly did that.
Laila Ali: More Than Muhammad Ali’s Daughter
Whenever Laila Ali is mentioned, there is an almost inevitable reference to her father.
Muhammad Ali.
One of the greatest heavyweight champions in boxing history and arguably the most recognisable figure the sport has ever produced.
But reducing Laila Ali’s career to her famous surname does her a tremendous disservice.
Laila Ali wasn’t simply Muhammad Ali’s daughter who decided to become a boxer. She was an undefeated world champion who established a legacy of her own.
Between 1999 and 2007, Ali compiled a professional record of 24 victories from 24 contests, including 21 knockouts.
She won world titles at super-middleweight and light-heavyweight and became one of the most recognisable female fighters of her generation.
Her record speaks for itself.
But her contribution to women’s boxing history extends beyond those numbers.
Ali brought considerable mainstream attention to the sport at a time when female fighters still struggled to receive consistent recognition.
Yes, her surname helped generate initial interest.
It would be ridiculous to pretend otherwise.
But a famous name doesn’t win 24 professional fights.
It doesn’t develop the discipline required to become a world champion. And it certainly doesn’t guarantee that a fighter will retire undefeated.
Those achievements belonged to Laila Ali.
There are legitimate discussions to be had about the quality of opposition during her career, particularly because some of the biggest potential match-ups never materialised.
The much-discussed contest against Ann Wolfe, for example, never happened.
That inevitably leaves questions about how Ali would have performed against every leading fighter of her era.
But boxing history is full of champions whose careers contain unanswered questions.
We don’t automatically dismiss their accomplishments because particular contests failed to take place.
Nor should we do so with Ali.
She helped demonstrate that women’s boxing could produce internationally recognised sporting personalities, and she did so while building an undefeated championship career.
Her father’s achievements made the Ali name famous.
Her own achievements ensured that she deserves a place in women’s boxing history.
Lucia Rijker: Proof That Women’s Boxing Had Elite Talent
Another name that deserves considerably more recognition is Lucia Rijker.
The Dutch fighter was an exceptional combat sports athlete whose achievements in both kickboxing and professional boxing established her as one of the most formidable competitors of her generation.
Rijker finished her professional boxing career undefeated, with 17 victories and 14 knockouts.
She possessed technical ability, composure and punching power that made her a particularly difficult opponent.
Yet despite her extraordinary talent, she never enjoyed the sustained mainstream attention that her abilities warranted.
That tells us something important about the challenges facing women’s boxing during that period.
Being an outstanding fighter wasn’t necessarily enough.
You also needed promoters willing to invest, broadcasters prepared to provide exposure and an industry capable of creating meaningful opportunities.
Those conditions weren’t consistently available.
Rijker’s career demonstrates that elite female boxing talent existed long before the modern generation began collecting world titles and headlining major arenas.
The problem wasn’t an absence of quality.
It was an absence of opportunity.
And those are two very different things.
Jane Couch: The Woman Who Took On British Boxing’s Establishment
For British boxing supporters, perhaps the most important name in this discussion is Jane Couch.
Her contribution to women’s boxing history goes far beyond anything she accomplished between the ropes.
Couch was a professional boxer who wanted to compete in Britain.
That shouldn’t have been controversial.
But the British Boxing Board of Control refused to license women to box professionally.
The restrictions reflected attitudes that now seem astonishingly outdated.
Women were effectively being told that they shouldn’t participate in a sport simply because of their sex.
Couch challenged that position.
In 1998, following her legal battle, the Board’s refusal to grant her a licence was found to constitute unlawful sex discrimination.
It was a landmark moment for women’s professional boxing in Britain.
And it is worth considering what that actually meant.
Couch wasn’t demanding preferential treatment.
She wasn’t asking for guaranteed television coverage, enormous purses or an immediate world championship opportunity.
She wanted the right to compete professionally under the same regulatory system as male fighters.
A right that should never have required a legal battle in the first place.
Couch subsequently became Britain’s first licensed female professional boxer.
Her achievements helped create opportunities for the generations that followed.
When we celebrate Katie Taylor headlining major events in Britain, we should remember that the sport once refused women such as Jane Couch the opportunity to obtain a professional licence.
That is how dramatically things have changed.
And it didn’t happen by accident.
Women’s Boxing History Is Also a History of Institutional Resistance
One of the biggest mistakes we can make when discussing women’s boxing history is treating the sport’s development as a straightforward progression.
As though female fighters gradually became more talented, audiences eventually noticed and everything naturally improved.
That isn’t what happened.
Women were capable of producing high-quality boxing contests long before the sport began taking them seriously.
The real barriers were frequently institutional.
Licensing restrictions, limited promotional investment, poor financial opportunities and deeply ingrained attitudes about women participating in combat sports all contributed to the problem.
Even when talented fighters emerged, they often struggled to build careers comparable to those available to male boxers.
That created another difficulty.
Without regular opportunities to compete against the best opposition, fighters couldn’t always establish the rivalries or championship records that help create lasting sporting legacies.
And without those opportunities, the wider public had fewer chances to discover just how good they were.
It became a vicious circle.
Women’s boxing supposedly lacked sufficient public interest to justify investment.
But without investment, how could the sport develop the audience it needed?
That argument was used for far too long.
Thankfully, the success of the modern generation has demonstrated just how flawed that thinking was.
Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields and Amanda Serrano Built on Those Foundations
None of this is intended to diminish the achievements of Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields or Amanda Serrano.
Quite the opposite.
All three deserve enormous credit for taking women’s boxing to new heights.
Taylor’s Olympic gold medal at London 2012 was a defining moment for the sport, while her professional career has helped establish women’s boxing as a major attraction.
Shields has achieved extraordinary success across multiple weight divisions, becoming a two-time Olympic gold medallist and an undisputed professional world champion.
Serrano’s achievements across seven weight divisions demonstrate the remarkable depth of her career, while her rivalry with Taylor has brought unprecedented attention to women’s boxing.
These fighters have helped transform perceptions of what female boxers can achieve commercially and competitively.
They have shown that women’s boxing can attract major audiences, generate significant interest and produce rivalries capable of capturing the sporting world’s attention.
But they didn’t emerge from nowhere.
They inherited a sport shaped by decades of determination.
Barbara Buttrick helped establish credibility when women’s boxing was barely recognised.
Christy Martin demonstrated that female fighters could attract mainstream audiences.
Laila Ali built an undefeated championship career while bringing international attention to the sport.
Lucia Rijker proved that elite technical ability and devastating punching power were already present.
Jane Couch challenged the restrictions that prevented British women from competing professionally.
Different fighters.
Different generations.
Different contributions.
But all part of the same story.
And that story deserves to be told in full.
Why Boxing’s Media Must Do Better
I believe boxing’s media has a responsibility here.
We spend enormous amounts of time discussing current champions, upcoming contests, promotional disputes and championship rankings.
That’s understandable.
Boxing is a constantly changing sport, and supporters naturally want to know what’s happening now.
But history matters too.
And women’s boxing history deserves far more attention than it generally receives.
It shouldn’t take a biographical film, a retirement announcement or the death of a former champion before we begin discussing what these fighters contributed.
Nor should we measure their importance exclusively through modern standards.
A pioneer competing in an era with limited opportunities cannot always be judged against a contemporary champion who benefits from established promotional structures and greater public recognition.
Context matters.
The same principle applies when discussing male fighters from different generations.
We recognise the historical importance of Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali because their influence extended beyond individual victories.
We should be equally willing to recognise women whose careers helped change the sport.
That doesn’t mean pretending every pioneer was technically superior to today’s champions.
It means understanding that sporting greatness can take different forms.
Sometimes it involves winning world titles.
Sometimes it involves becoming a global superstar.
And sometimes it involves fighting for the right to enter the ring at all.
The Future of Women’s Boxing Depends on Remembering Its Past
Women’s boxing has made extraordinary progress, but there is still work to be done.
Questions surrounding financial opportunities, promotional investment, competitive depth and the future structure of women’s contests remain important.
I have long supported women having the opportunity to compete over the same twelve three-minute rounds available to male world championship fighters.
For me, equality should include giving elite female boxers the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities under equivalent championship conditions, with appropriate medical safeguards.
But whatever changes come next, we should never forget how far the sport has travelled.
The women competing today have opportunities that previous generations fought desperately to secure.
And future generations will hopefully enjoy opportunities that even today’s champions haven’t yet experienced.
That is how sporting progress should work.
One generation creates opportunities for the next.
But progress becomes less meaningful when we forget the people responsible for making it possible.
Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields and Amanda Serrano deserve their places among the most important figures in women’s boxing.
So do Barbara Buttrick, Christy Martin, Laila Ali, Lucia Rijker and Jane Couch.
Women’s boxing didn’t begin with its modern superstars. They helped take it to another level.
And the pioneers who made that journey possible deserve far more than an occasional mention in a history article.
They deserve to be remembered as an essential part of boxing’s story.
Who Deserves More Recognition in Women’s Boxing History?
Which pioneering female boxer do you believe deserves more recognition? Was it Barbara Buttrick, Christy Martin, Laila Ali, Lucia Rijker, Jane Couch or someone whose contribution has been overlooked entirely?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your views in the comments, tell me which fighters you think boxing history has forgotten, and share this article with fellow boxing supporters.
For more independent boxing opinions, historical features and analysis of the issues shaping the sport, visit CMBoxing.
Because boxing’s history belongs to everyone who helped build it, not just the champions we celebrate today.