GUEST COLUMN
Women’s boxing is improving for sure, but it’s still not where it should be
Jane Couch on female boxing’s rise
I WASN’T ALLOWED INTO THE BOXING AWARDS BECAUSE I WAS A WOMAN
PEOPLE say women’s boxing has come a long way, and it has come a long way, but imagine what it’s going to be like in 20 years.
Back when I was boxing, I didn’t even used to get a mention in Boxing News. I used to think it was funny. They’d mention all the male boxers on a show and deliberately leave me out of the reports. Now I’m writing this column. Now I’m talking about women’s boxing and how far it has come.
Here’s another example of how far it has come. Before a fight in Denmark, I remember going to the promoter and asking if he had any meal vouchers I could use in the hotel. He said, “No, you can’t have any. You’re only in a women’s fight.”
Another time I turned up at the British boxing awards dinner and they wouldn’t let me in. They said I wasn’t welcome. I said, “Why?” They said, “Because you’re a woman.”
That was what it was like back then. I had no choice but to take it, sleep on casino floors and fight for nothing. It didn’t bother me. We didn’t know any better.
Even when we did get paid, it wasn’t much. Look at the night I fought Lucia Rijker, the best female boxer of all time, on the undercard of the world heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko in 2003.
At the time, it didn’t get any bigger or better than that. But Lucia got paid just $5,000 and I had to make do with $3,500. That night at the Staples Center I went the distance with the hardesthitting female boxer in history and perforated my ear drum in the first round. For what? A measly threeand-a-half grand.
Even today, at a time when women’s boxing is doing well, the girls will be struggling. It’s better, yeah, but the only one who is probably doing well is Katie Taylor and even Katie won’t be doing as well, financially, as everybody thinks.
Girls like Natasha Jonas, Chantelle Cameron and Stacey Copeland are just boxing on normal shows. They’re probably getting a few hundred quid. But people don’t see that. The problem is, there’s not enough depth yet. Our girls haven’t fought anybody decent. It will happen in the future, they’ll find better opponents, but it’s not happening right now.
The standard, overall, has improved. You can’t say it hasn’t. But it’s still not where it needs to be. You could say the same about the men, though. There are a lot of terrible men fighting on our TV screens.
Katie is brilliant, she’s got all the tools, but her biggest attribute is the Sky Sports platform. Without that, she’d struggle like the rest. I also like the look of Chantelle. I think she’s got power. But the one thing she is lacking is a platform to help her get noticed. If I was her I’d go to America, like I did, and just start bashing them lot up over there.
The best in America is probably Claressa Shields. She’s very good. She had a terrible life and is clearly tough physically and mentally. She also has some character, some personality, and that’s what you need. You have to have that bit of personality if you hope to get anywhere in this sport, especially if you’re a woman.
I’ve got nothing to do with boxing now but still get emails every day from girls and their trainers looking for sparring and fights.
What can you tell them? It’s so f**king hard out there.
It needs me to make a comeback and kick the f**k out of all of them. If I wasn’t 49, I f**king would do as well.