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Answered by Laura Saperstein

The way it works for the men is it’s very easy for a male novice on his home territory whereas if you want to match a female you have to look round the whole country. The boxing establishment haven’t ... Show more »The way it works for the men is it’s very easy for a male novice on his home territory whereas if you want to match a female you have to look round the whole country. The boxing establishment haven’t been very techno competent at matching women, they use the old style way of getting in touch with a mate that they know at another club to get a match. Now if it’s a girl you might need to go to Birmingham or Wales or elsewhere in the UK to get a match and the matchmakers might not have contacts in those areas so they tend not to bother. Plus it costs money because you have to travel. In the end if your not getting bouts then you won’t develop as a boxer, you can do shadow boxing and press ups forever but you’re not going to improve your skill unless you actually box. Largely the problem has been that there’s been a lack of opportunity in the sport to develop a big strong base for women. Of course it’s not going to be easy to change this but when your forging something new and there are obstacles there are also big opportunities. I think public opinion is starting to change. At my recent fight a lot of the men who’d come to watch the male fighters on the bill came to tell me that mine was by far the best fight of the night, including trainers. I think people will start to accept women’s boxing and it will become more popular, especially at an amateur level. Show less »