Women’s Boxing: A Night of Celebration At The O2 Arena

Women’s Boxing: A Night of Celebration At The O2 Arena

Saturday night will be historic. A showcase for the continued progress of women’s boxing. Apathy, indifference, and prejudice will be knocked a little further away from the memories of many. It will be a celebration of the present with more than one eye on the future.

The future is there in the likes of Lauren Price, Karriss Artingstall, Caroline Dubois, and others who grace the all-female line-up at the O2 Arena in London. A fitting stage for a night of this magnitude.

Boxxer has invested in the future, and indeed the present. Natasha Jonas, maybe the shrewdest of all the investments of the new kid on the boxing block. A fighter who once was the fighter on the outside chasing an elusive world title, now she has two. It likely, won’t stop there. Jonas is that little hint of the past and the present and the future as well.

The women’s side of the sport has come a long way in the last few years. What Jane Couch bravely started in a forgotten time of bigotry and more, Katie Taylor reignited when she turned professional in 2016. Eddie Hearn and Matchroom took a gamble, and it didn’t initially take off. But that incredible first fight with Delfine Persoon in 2019, seemed to change plenty. The behind closed doors setting of Fight Camp the following year captured a new audience. In Eddie’s back garden, Taylor and Persoon went to war once again, but Jonas and Terri Harper convinced many lingering doubters in their fight which highlighted the quality of the women’s game.

Hearn has invested heavily with the likes of Shannon Courtenay, Ebanie Bridges, Chantelle Cameron, Skye Nicolson, Ellie Scotney, Harper, and others signing with Matchroom. Others have undoubtedly seen and learned from Hearn.

Taylor and Amanda Serrano showed that with the right promotion, and with the right fighters involved, what could be done. An iconic moment, with the fight to match. History is overused in boxing. That night. That fight. Deserves every single plaudit given to it. The Garden rocked with progress.

But that moment in time would soon fade away if nothing was built from that night in Madison Square Garden. This Saturday night is another significant step forward and further proof that what Taylor and Serrano gave us won’t go to waste. The two fights that sit proudly at the top of the card, are everything we need to continue the forward trajectory.

Savannah Marshall, Claressa Shields, Mikaela Mayer, and Alycia Baumgardner will settle their own disputes of no little venom and spite. Two grudge fights for the ages, and ones for which you could easily make a case for either fighter. One such fight on a show we are thankful, to have two, is very much Christmas come early. The winners of the two headline fights could propel their careers to another dimension. Mayer especially could put herself into Katie Taylor territory with a win.

But whoever leaves London with a golden future, it is a night where the progress of women’s boxing should be celebrated. And it is worth remembering how far we have come. When Jane Couch won her world title, it was very different. In an interview with Donald McRae, Couch said:

“I thought I was going to get mobbed at the airport but no one was there. I got Boxing News that next Friday. I was all excited but there was nothing.”

Couch and her struggles should never be forgotten, or the part that she played in paving the way for where we are today. Times have belatedly and thankfully changed since the days of Couch. Boxing News will be there on Saturday, as will many more from the world of boxing media. Demand for media access has been overwhelming far exceeding the limited spaces available, ringside seats are at a premium for the YouTube outlets and written press. More press will be crammed into a backstage area. A sign of the times. A sign of progress. And long may it continue.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer