At one point in the boxing history of America, women were on the grand stage, where $1 million paydays weren’t that out of reach. One of the biggest names in women’s boxing at the time was Christy Martin (49-7-3, 31 KO’s), who some also consider one of the best women to ever step into the ring. Martin fought ten times on Showtime and Showtime PPV. Her career breakthrough came on the undercard of the highly anticipated fight between American Heavyweight Mike Tyson and Britain’s Frank Bruno.
The aftermath of that PPV card saw everyone talking about the war that took place the night before and they weren’t talking about Tyson-Bruno, they were talking about the Martin fight. She put the modern day women’s boxing on the map. She soon graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and had interview calls from Jay Leno to Katie Couric. Tyson was so impressed with her performance, he even went out of his way to buy Martin a BMW. Her success continued and she continued fighting on the undercards of boxing legends, Evander Holyfield, Felix Trinidad and Julio Cesar Chavez. She saw herself fighting in the MGM Grand to the mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden.
According to a report by ESPN’s Dan Rafael, Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum even wanted to get into the action. In 2005 after the film blockbuster “Million Dollar Baby”, a film about a female fighter, Arum had a PPV card in place where the main event would have had Martin taking on the undefeated Dutch fight, Luca Rijker (17-0, 14 KO’s). The undercard also would have seen American Olympian Brian Viloria challenging for a title. Arum has gone on record saying that he was ready to pay both fighters $250k and the winner walking away with a bonus of $750k. Thus making the winner the first female fighter in history to break that million dollar mark. Unfortunately, Rijker had a serious Achilles injury that sidelined her for months. The whole card was scrapped as a result.
Women’s boxing made a huge comeback at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, by being part of the Olympics once again, the only problem with this is that it came at a low time. However, the upside is that the women’s amateur scene is growing and producing more talents since fighters now see an incentive by fighting at the Olympics. Having the Olympics back for the women’s boxing is huge and will get the game going once again. It is the equivalent of having academies and farm systems for other major sports like soccer and baseball.
The problem lies with promoters in the U.S, they are just not as willing to televise any of their fights on major TV networks anymore. Some of that reasoning comes from promoters thinking that their investments in women will not bear any fruits. Another reason is that the American women’s boxing scene is not at its strongest point. There are currently 51 active world champions and only 3 of them are American. Now with the Olympics back, it shall be able to produce more talent in the U.S. The best current female fighters come from Europe, Asia or Latin America. In those regions, women’s boxing still remains a profitable business. Women still find themselves fighting for good paydays and on important cards. They also find themselves with the ability of defending and fighting for titles in their homelands.
The American boxing scene for women has been so bad that many fighters here find themselves forced to fight in foreign lands to fight for title contention and defend their titles. The American, Ava Knight (13-2-3, 5 KO’s) was forced to fight many of her fights in Mexico, in her pursuit of a world title. Mexico and many other nations around still remain a hotbed for women’s boxing. Women over there find themselves fighting in the co-main events of male world title fights. Seeing how 48 of the current women’s world champions are from foreign lands, one can see how countries are still pushing for world title conquests as opposed to promoters here in the U.S.
Currently one of the most talked about female fighters in the boxing world is Brooklyn’s own Heather “The Heat” Hardy (15-0, 3 KO’s). Her promoter Lou Dibella who is now associated with PBC has strategically placed Hardy on a total of five undercards at the Barclays Arena. She most recently fought on the undercard of Jacobs-Quillin. With PBC being on TV so often it can be a safe bet that Hardy may potentially be the first female fighter to be on a major American channel in a while.
Ronda Rousey the former UFC women’s world batamanweight champion of the world is living proof of just how lucrative female fighters can become if backed up by the right people. She has become one of the most lucrative female fighters of all time. She has so far grossed more than $13 million in her relatively short career, according to Forbes magazine, has more than 20 million followers on social media and her last two fights did over 900k and a million PPV buys. Rousey is concrete proof that female fighters if marketed correctly, can be just as lucrative if not more than some male fighters. She has been breaking records left and right for women and in her last fight, she was able to pack a stadium with more than 50,000 fans. That is amazing star power for one athlete and especially for a female in a primarily male dominated sport.
A fight is a fight, it doesn’t matter what gender is fighting, if the fighters bring it then they deserve the same the recognition and pay days just like any male fighter would get. Ronda Rousey, even though she fights in the UFC, is proof of how a female fighter can be more lucrative than some male fighters. One day within the very near future we will see women back in boxing’s limelight and fighting on major U.S networks.
– Brando Chacon / @Brandoo34
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