Boxing was an integral portion of the gladatorial equation as a key combative component of the concerto of competition in the Colliseum. Boxing bouts abounded and the Marquis de Queensbury rules were still centuries off. These were barefisted knuckle sandwich flesh to flesh affairs, and in the case of women boxers, bare chested as well, long before the popularity of Mother, Jugs and Speed! These were vicious, deadly blood fights between woman against woman, as well as woman against man, and in some cases, woman against midget! Women had proved themselves more than a worthy opponent of the male gendered dominated psycho-social society of the Roman Empire.
Leapfrog ahead to the 19th Century and step through the looking glass of womens combat sports. The Bristish Empire was an early backer of female prizefighting while promoting the pugilistic prowess of these battling goddesses of the golden glove. The first official female prize fight took place in 1822 in London when Martha Flaherty, the female Cassius Clay of the day in the life of the empire fought and defeated Peg Carey for a grand total take of 18 pounds! Even today I can't tell a pence from a penny so do the math yourself. When asked the secret to her sucessful ring rumble, she replied that she had downed a pint of gin before stepping into the ring, and while jacked up on booze brought her challenger down with a sobering series of punches that knocked her off her feet and left her prone on the canvas for the count! Nobody wants to argue with a drunken vixen who can box and walk a straightline at the same time!
By the Centennial year of 1876 in the former colony of America, a gent by the name of Harry Hill, had a group of female fighters in a harmonious hymen heaven harem ready to bare it all and go for the vagina victory over their female opponents! In the first bout of it's kind, Nell Saunders defeated Rose Harland. The prize? A silver butter dish! She probably would have killed Rose for a full set of Tupperware or fishnet stockings! The boxing beauties wore tight fitting t-shirts to showcase their knockers along with wearing a pair of short nickers to show off their thighs of thunder for a complete costume that can only be described as a display of Thunder Wear! People were shocked at the sexy show of leg and bulging breasts that were ready to break through the flimsy shirt material like a Mongol horde of warriors breaching the Great Wall of China. Women were allowed into the fight free of charge, while Men paid 25 cents for the privilege. Maybe this was the precursor for amateur wet t-shirt night in todays singles bars. Maybe mud boxing will make a comback along with mud wrestling. We can only live in hope and dream our wet dreams of pleasure. These sexy displays of combat were highly popular due to their sex appeal but in time, Hills had to close down his fights in 1886 due to the prudishness of overzealous politicians.
In one report published in 1884 in England the British scientist Sir Francis Galton tests 500 men and 270 women to see how fast they could punch. "I found that the men averaged 18 feet per second, with a maximum speed of 29 feet per second, while the women averaged 13 feet per second, with a maximum speed of 20 feet per second. In other words, while some women could hit harder than the average man, most women could hit only 55% as hard. A 20-year old American woman named Etta Hattan adopts the stage name of Jaguarina, and bills herself as the "Ideal Amazon of the Age." Whether she was all of that is of course debatable, but she was certainly Amazon enough to defeat many men at mounted broadsword fencing during her 15-year professional career."
Female boxing hit it's first real stride on the American female dragstrip of combat sports in 1889. The female fighters fought stripped except for a pair of skimpy shorts. Also, French footfighting called "savatte" a form of kickboxing was included in the competition. Some of the fighters were in the jailbait league with youngest known female boxer at the time a ripe 12 years of age. One girl, Cecilia Richard began her career at the age of 14 and by the age of 20 had beaten every contender there was. Injuries were fixed on the spot including stitches applied, as the competition became downright violent that it belongs more as a scene in Resevoir Dogs! Female foot fighters took on female boxers, where the matches could go as long as 90 minutes with powerful kicks and punches to the abdomen and the face. Some of the early champeens of the female ring include Nellie Stewart of Virginian, Ann Lewis of Ohio and Hattie Leslie of New York.
In a bizarre unnanounced bout, famed boxed John L. Sullivan walked into a San Fran saloon claiming he could and would lick "any son-of-a-bitch" in the house. The house unfortunately for Sullivan was owned by Bessie Hall who did not allow swearing in her bar. She walked around the bar confronting the great John L. and with one punch laid him out cold!
The female fight game took on a bizarre sado-masochist detour when in the Gay 90's Parisian street gangs were shaving their heads and started to sport metal studded leather jackets. The press dubbed them "apaches" and soon a popular dance called the "apache" was spawned where women with tattoos would fight each other with knives naked in the ring for male audiences. After the duel and they were bloody and scarred...they would stand at attention while men slapped them around and knocked them down.
Around the same era South America introduced us to a real live Amazon. South America afterall is where yes, there are Amazon women and a river of the same name, so enter a South American female boxer named Bellona. She was beautiful, sexual and deadly at the same time. In her home country she fought to the death in matches and managed to kill her opponents. When she was 21 she moved to New Orleans and fought in private clubs, but was restricted when it came to killing...that was good enough for South America, but in the civilized North America (civilized?) brute force could only admister a deadly beating and lots of blood was acceptible.
Because of her and some of the champion French female fighters, young American girls were off and running to savate foot fighting camps where now a 14 year old champ could not only defeat but maim an opponent! It was now now uncommon for stage fights between 12 and 14 year old females against 12 and 14 yeor old boys. The girls almost always to a man, if I may use that term...won! In the mile high town of Denver in 1912, a fight between 12 year old Edna Howard and 14 year old Ted McKenna was held as part of an attraction of a vaudeville show with freaks but was stopped after the third round...she was beating young Ted to a bloody pulp! The fight sounds like it could recreated on film today starring Jutin Bieber and anyones pre-pubescent sister.
The turn of the century saw an upturn in the growing popularity of pussy and pugilism. Team a set of bare breasts and a victory hungry hymen with a pair of boxing gloves and you have the wet dream come true. Vaginas and Victory! Its not just for breakfast anymore! A British fighter named Barbara Buttrick earned the nickname the Mighty Atom due to her powerful jab and in the psot war 1940's and early 1950's she was in th ring what the atomic bomb was to Hiroshima! While touring America in the fabulous Fifties she unleashed the inhibitions in potential female fighters who wanted to follow their own path to victory and she promoted and encouraged and helped stage American females fighting in the ring challenging male opponents and bringing female fighting to the forefront of the sports culture rather then hidden as it had been in the dark of th sports subculture.
The first televised bout was held in 1954 and the female fighting genii was let out of the bottle! By the 1960's and 1970's the ring roost was being ruled by "Tiger Lily" Ryan, Caroline Svendwen and Pat Pindela. As an Olympic sport there was a demonstration at the 1904 games, and in 1988, theSwedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned the events for women. The Brits held their first sanctioned event in 1997, and was going to be between two 13 years olds but public opinion caused it to be cancelled. Two weeks later it was held but this time with two 16 year old girls.
Today, it's about athleticism, as women's boxing takes it's rightful place in the wide world of sports and although it is pure sport, lets face it, there will always be a hint of sexuality about it. Why do most women watch football? Tight fitting uniforms and a possible erection on the 40 yard line. Why do we watch female boxing? Simple...we not only love sports and competition, but men today are nostalgic at best, we love tradition...and when it comes to female boxing, we wax poetic about the good old days...when barechested women ruled the ring, and along with a good old sucker punch, we had a wonderful upper torso display that set us off like fireworks on the Fourth of July! It also created quite af few sexy girl crushes as well. Hell, who wouldn't step into the ring with Hillary Swank?