Boxing history will be made at the end of April. For the first time, two female fighters, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, will go head-to-head at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden venue in a match set to fuel the sport’s rapid rise in popularity.
For two women to go 10 rounds in the same venue, where Muhammad Ali has fought Joe Frazier – twice – and where Rocky Marciano has KO’d an aging Joe Louis shows the remarkable, rapid progress that has taken place over the last two decades.
Some argue that women won Olympic medals with the same blend of tenacity and panache as their male counterparts, while the success of the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby gave the Hollywood treatment to the guts and determination of female boxers.
Whatever the reason, it’s worth remembering that the first legal women’s fight in the UK was 23 years ago and female boxers still face stigma and stereotypes in male-dominated clubs.
Taylor and Serrano’s fight marks a sea change: it has generated interest on a male bout level, with advance tickets to the 20,000-seat arena selling out quickly.
Women’s boxing is growing in popularity at all levels, from amateur to professional. According to a 2020 Sport England survey, 17% more women boxed regularly in 2020 than in 2015, involving 420,400 women, while Boxing England said female membership had grown by 65% since 2017 despite the pandemic.
When Taylor, an Irish boxer with a British team, began her career as a teenager in the late 1990s, she was forced to pose as a boy using the alias Kay.
“When I started, women’s boxing was not legal in Ireland. That was a huge barrier to overcome. One of the best things about my journey is that I see so many fighters now and the opportunities that are out there,” she said.
She believes her fight at Madison Square Garden will open “so many doors” for female fighters. “It’s great for young girls to grow up with female role models, that’s very important.”
Taylor sees the 2012 Olympics, when women’s boxing was first introduced, as a turning point, particularly in Ireland and the UK. She won a gold medal for Ireland at lightweight while Britain’s Nicola Adams won gold at bantamweight.
A new generation of boxing stars are reaping the benefits of the platform these early champions gave the sport. That includes Shannon Courtenay, who turned pro in 2019 after crediting the discipline of boxing with transforming her life.
“When I started boxing, I was the only woman in the gym. People would raise their eyebrows if I said I boxed. They said, ‘Really? You’re a woman!’ Now I feel like it’s the norm,” she said. “Women’s sport is growing massively, but especially boxing.”
She feels that while it’s still perceived as a “man’s sport,” the stigma that it’s “not ladylike to fight” is disappearing. “It’s about violence, but then again, it’s not: it’s an art form.”
Eddie Hearn, who promotes Taylor alongside male superstars like Anthony Joshua, said he battled skepticism among old-school promoters who warned that networks would never care about women’s fights, but when he signed Taylor, “was the timing right”.
“What we’ve seen in the last six to seven years is just the most incredible rise in women’s boxing, of more and more British world champions, more women’s fights headlining regular cards, women’s pay increasing at an astronomical rate, and more importantly is, at the grassroots level, the development of young girls who say, ‘I want to get into boxing,'” he said.
Boxers say the sport offers skills unmatched by any other activity – from intense strength and conditioning work to the skill, technique and mental rigor required to compete.
Another defining characteristic of boxing is the inclusive culture of many clubs, which are often based in low-income areas that other sports have struggled to reach, said England Boxing Club Support Officer Laura Sargeant.
“If your parents can’t afford to pay for your subs, they’d rather you were there than on the streets causing trouble or antisocial behavior. It’s a tough sport and tough training,” she said.
The growing popularity of classes that combine fitness with boxing technique has also made the sport more accessible to women, some of whom later join clubs and compete – a path pioneered by British-Somali pro Ramla Ali.
Gyms like Blok in London and Manchester offer drop-in classes where people can learn how to save without the risks associated with competitive bouts.
“People want to get a good hard workout in a short amount of time because they have busy lives and boxing provides that and because it’s skill based it’s a little bit more engaging so it feels like you’re learning something.” he said Blok’s boxing boss Declan Taylor.
For Taylor, her fight with Serrano is not the end of women’s boxing’s journey. “I want these fights to be on a constant basis, I want big mega fights month to month just like we see it in men. I want women to be the biggest names overall.”
Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano will be broadcast on DAZN on April 30th
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