City makes boxing history with UK’s first all-female card event

BOXING history will be made in Manchester this weekend when the city hosts the UK’s first all-female boxing event.

More than 180 women and girls across 18 weight divisions have entered the two-day Winter Box Cup at the George H Carnall Centre in Urmston on Saturday and Sunday.

Boxers from Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Guernsey and Jersey will be competing along with some of the best from the UK.

And the event has been hailed by double Olympic boxing gold medalist Nicola Adams, who believes it will help uncover the next generation of world-class boxers. Adams (pictured), who won the first Women’s Elite ABA Championships in 2003 at 54kg and clinched the title a further three times, said: “I think the Box Cup will help massively for the development of the next generation coming through. “I’m really pleased and happy to see that things are moving forwards in women’s boxing in England and that women and girls are starting to get just as many opportunities as the guys. “We are already getting European and World medals, so I can only see things getting better and better from here with events like this.”

The popularity of boxing among women and girls continues to rise, with 1,560 female members of England Boxing in 2017, up from 1,287 in 2015.

The sport’s national governing body is keen to keep that momentum going and capitalise on the successes of Adams and others such as Caroline Dubois, who won a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October.

Terri Kelly, who sits on England Boxing’s Rules and Regulations sub-committee, has played a leading role in initiating the England Boxing’s Women’s Winter Cup.

She said: “Amateur women’s boxing has come a long way in the past few years, particularly with the exposure through the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.”