Poll: Does Women's Boxing Interest You?
by Scott Christ on Nov 5, 2010 5:27 PM EDT
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I realize this might be a halfway touchy subject, so if you're going to make frat boy comments or whatever, either abstain or prepare to be ruthlessly banned, but this is something I've thought about from time to time.
Obviously all of us on this site are boxing fans to one degree or another. Some are boxing nuts, some are casual fans, some fall somewhere in the middle. But clearly this site covers only the men's side of the sport, which aligns with pretty much every boxing site out there, really. Occasionally you'll get a blip of news on a notable fight in women's boxing, but it's rare.
So the question is this: Do you have any interest in women's boxing? Women's MMA has become more popular as that sport has grown, but in boxing they've just never really made a dent in overall fan interest, it seems, and that doesn't seem like it's changing any time soon.
If you're like me and admittedly have basically no interest in women's boxing, why is that for you? Is it a lack of personalities? Do you have trouble seeing women engaging in a brutal sport? Is it a technical issue for you (e.g., are the fights simply less appealing from a technical standpoint)? Or are you just plain not interested?
And if you are a fan, please share why, and maybe share some of your favorite fighters or fights.
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No
I just don’t think women are supposed to fight.A woman with a broken nose or a black eye is just not a good look,imo.
There are some nice looking ones out there though.
Her who had her picture up on the Boxrec homepage last week looked pretty sweet. :)
She must be pretty good cos her face wasn’t marked up at all.
I've tried to watch women's boxing, but I just don't particularly enjoy it.
There are certain sports that women excel at that I could never enjoy watching men perform, but boxing is not one of them. It’s a bit like watching women play cricket; the speed and power just doesn’t match up to men. That’s the real reason for me.
Such were the days, still, hot, heavy, disappearing one by one into the past, as if falling into an abyss for ever open in the wake of the ship; and the ship, lonely under a wisp of smoke, held on her steadwast way black and smouldering in a luminous immensity, as if scorched by a flame flicked at her from a heaven without pity.
I voted no
And not for any misogynistic reasons. Women have just as much of a “right” to box as men. But I barely follow women’s boxing and I can’t really put my finger on why. I guess I just don’t find it as interesting as men’s boxing.
Hell yeah!
Ever since I saw Elena “Baby Doll” Reid riped off against Regina Halmich I’ve maintained interest but before that I had about as much interest in the PGA tour than women’s boxing.
Myriam Lamare fights tomorrow I think, and she has a bit of a following in France and a good fighter.
Iran Barkley’s sister was supposed to have been mean-handy with her fists but only had a handful of fights. And I have huge respect for ladies like Anne Wolfe and Lucia
Rijker as they are/were awesome fighters.
no
lack of competition
lack of athleticism
and honestly im not sure id watch even if they had both of those components and put on really good fights
"After this, I'm gonna kick Bob Arum's ass."
-George Lopez
I think the 2 minute rounds is a big reason I have a problem with women’s boxing. I can’t fathom the reason for it (other than naked paternalism), and it doesn’t allow sufficient time for action to develop.
That being said, a good fight between top-level female contenders — sure, I’d watch that. The Wolfe/Ali dream match would have been worth seeing, for instance.
Casual
For me, it’s mostly just that the skill and talent levels are so much lower. That might not be the case if there were more participants, but there are usually only 4 or 5 half decent fighters in each weight class.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I can't beleive we haven't had the
“Well.. it’s ok as long as they do the cooking and cleaning first”… not that I would make those type of comments ;-)
Scott warned against the frat boy comments well in advance for just that reason, I feel....
:)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
Having said that.
It’s great that the girls can learn some defence for their own safety… sad but true these days.
Not a fan per se Scott, but women like Rijker, Couch, Wolf, Martin, Holm, Anyos etc come to fight – and can fight. I can appreciate that. I sparred with a female once – pig-tails n’ all. Came at me like a howling banshee, but I couldn’t hit her – partly because it felt wrong but also because she was so bloody quick! If I had a daughter – I’d want her to be like my sparring partner for that day.
"Anytime you go thirty rounds with a guy, try to kill each other, and have the utmost respect for each other, no one understands that, but guys who have been to war understand it." - Micky Ward on Arturo Gatti.
Wolfe is an exception for me
If I’ve ever seen a woman I would call “a bad motherfucker,” it would be Ann Wolfe.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
No Surprise
I like it, when I can find it. I can’t say I spend time hunting it down, but I do appreciate that TSS reports on it, and follow it as best I can there. I agree that the quality isn’t always as good as high quality men’s boxing, but sometimes it’s close, and often enough it’s as good as the B-/C+ cards we so often watch featuring men. I think it will improve over time, as things like slooooowly growing tv exposure and inclusion at the Olympics take their effect. I enjoyed watching both Hagar Finer vs Julia Sahin, and Lisa Brown vs Jeri Sites on the Troy Ross-Carl Handy card on secondsouttv as much as anything else that weekend, not to damn with faint praise—they fought hard and energetically and were fun to watch.
If love would die along with death, this life wouldn't be so hard--Andrew Vachss
I do wonder what effect the Olympics could have. That could really be a big thing to improving the overall quality.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
I realise this might sound discriminative, or whatever,
and it certainly pissed off a woman boxer who was in the same pub as me when I said it before, but I genuinely just have an aversion to women getting hit. Whether it’s by men, other women, or creatures from Alpha Centauri (which look strangely like Howard Eastman…), it’s all irrelevant to me. I don’tlike women’s boxing, I don;t like seeing women get hit, and like Matt said above, I don’t like seeing women with bruises, black eyes etc.
I appreciate they (some of them, at least) are good at what they do, and I appreciate the dedication it takes to be good whether you are male or female, but as much as I’m not saying it should be outlawed or anything like that, I’m also adamant I won’t get involved in watching it, and maintain my ignorance of it as much as is possible.
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
I have to admit I just don't love the idea of anyone hitting women.
Woman or Man.
I know they are athletes voluntarily chosing to compete but I just can’t root for one woman to bust up another.
But hey, that’s just me.
No
The lack of athleticism compared to men just leaves me hangin. Plus, some of them are good lookin and i hate watching that beautiful thing get bruised up.
i voted causal … definitely cannot consider myself a fan, but if its on an under ill watch it. i do find theres a still a huge gap for the most part in skill and athleticism vs men. and i do sometimes fell uncomfortable watching two women fighting and absorbing a lot of punishment. i do not want to sound sexist but womens frames just do not look like there really built to absorb boxing as well as men. so thats what can make it difficult for me to watch.
although that ann wolf knockout is one of the best in boxing … and early this year i watched a german card with ina menzer vs Kuehne and surprising to me that was quite high level and entertaining to watch.
Nope.
It might be a litlte frat-boy/sexist, but I’ll admit that a decent chunk of my interest in any women’s sports is the looks. Not that there aren’t good looking lady boxers, but most women don’t look great getting punched.
And in a larger sense, I’d have to work too hard to follow the sports. With men’s boxing, there’ll be news about it somewhere, and it’ll get on TV (the big fights, anyway). Where can I find women’s fights beside the internet? (And Holly Holm’s website hasn’t been updated since 2006, which is not an encouraging sign).
Not for me
As stated a few times above, I don’t agree with women getting hit. Even if it’s organised and profesional such as boxing.
Also as Brick said, the skill levels are just not the same.
Not at all
And it may seem like a totally sexist statement but I prefer to view women as feminine rather than violent. I also think that subconsciously its a reaction to the never hit women mantra. If one is to believe that hitting a woman is wrong its going to make it more awkward to watch female fights.
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