The Mighty Atom is back... and still dishing out the fighting talk at 87
SHE WAS “The Mighty Atom of the Ring”, under 5ft tall, but with a lethal left jab.
For a decade, Barbara Buttrick was the world’s unbeaten flyweight and bantamweight champion – scoring 12 knockouts. But when she decided to take up boxing in the 1940s, her biggest battle was getting anyone to take her seriously.
The 87-year-old, who now lives in Miami, returned to her native Hull and came face to face with local boxing champion Tommy Coyle, who unveiled a plaque in her honour at his east Hull gym.
“You have the eye of a tiger,” he told her.
“She was a world champion – I am just international,” he added.
Coyle, a former WBC Silver International lightweight champion and Mrs Buttrick will take part in a panel discussion at the WOW Hull festival tomorrow. Her story has also inspired a play, Mighty Atoms, by Amanda Whittington, which premieres at Hull Truck Theatre in June.
Mrs Buttrick, born in Cottingham, in 1930, realised what she wanted to do when she came home, her shoes covered in mud and her mother threw down a newspaper to clean them. An article caught her eye about Polly Burns, or “Polly the Champ”, a remarkable fighter born in 1881.
She said: “What used to annoy me was that the boys, whatever they wanted to do, they could do.
“Girls never had opportunities. I felt a girl should be able to do what she wanted to do. I started by punching in the back yard with the boys in 1945. Then when I was 18 I decided to go to London. My mum was not happy, but she said as I was 18 she could not stop me.”
She pressed on despite opposition, including a Daily Mirror columnist who wrote: “I fail to understand why she considers it necessary to parade herself like some freak.”
The Yorkshire Post recorded in 1950 the Mayor of Dewsbury expressing his displeasure at a fight between her and another woman at the town’s fair. It was cancelled. She said: “Girls are very lucky now to have the opportunities. If I was a kid now I would be a very happy kid.”
She racked up 1,000 boxing exhibitions as a bantamweight, travelling the fairgrounds of England, France and the US.
She then fought professionally in Canada, Chicago, and southern Florida.
In 1957, she became the first female to win a world title at bantamweight, beating Phyllis Kugler on a unanimous points decision.
Mrs Buttrick also founded and became the president of the Women’s International Boxing Federation.
Coyle said: “We have some fantastic young females who are up and coming. I am hoping it will inspire them to go on and do the same.”
I felt a girl should be able to do what she wanted to do. Former world champion bantamweight boxer Barbara Buttrick