Snips and Snipes 25 October 2022: State of Women's Boxing
By Eric Armit
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 26 Oct 2022
With Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields vs. Savannah Marshall and on Saturday Taylor at Wembley Arena against Karen Carbajal all showing the pulling power and entertainment value of female boxing it might be time to do a little revue as to where female boxing sits now and what might be ahead. Right now, as a snapshot in time, according to BoxRec there are 1,736 active female boxers. Mexico leads the way with 266 with the others as follows: No 2 USA=147, No 3 Argentina= 126, No 4 Japan= 98, No 5 Thailand 90, No 6 United Kingdom=70, No 7 France 46, No 8 South Africa=41, No 9 Tanzania=33, No 10 Russia 16 so whereas the UK is the leading country as far as mega fights are concerned, they do not have as big a base as might be presumed.
At the other end of the scale despite the success of Amanda Serrano Box Rec shows only three female boxers for Puerto Rico. The purpose behind putting together these figures (apart from keeping me off the streets) is to give a base line. Perception can be misleading so one way of measuring how the feats of Taylor, Serrano, Shields and Marshall have influenced other females to take up boxing would be to compare the above to the situation at the end of 2023. Money talks and the gates that the fights mentioned above have generated will encourage more promoters to use female boxers and promoter Ben Shalom has suggested there should be a female bout on every show although that could lead to a lowering of standards as promoters scramble to find fighters. There is one hidden threat to the increase of young females being attracted to boxing and that is the current suspension of boxing from the Olympic Games. Taylor, Shields and Marshall all competed at the Olympics and I am sure that seeing them and others on TV must have been the impetus for many, if not most, youngsters being drawn to the sport. There will still be the World Championships but by comparison with Olympic boxing it will be no more than a side show. We have had false dawns over female boxing in the past but to misquote Rudyard Kipling this one “came up like thunder” and hopefully will herald a golden age for female boxing.
Still on the ladies on October 29, veteran Mariana ‘Barby’ Juárez, aged 42, will be aiming to become a four-time world title holder as she challenges for the WBC super bantamweight title against title holder Yamileth Mercado. The fight is part of the campaign to raise awareness among women in the battle against breast cancer.
South Korean Hyun Mi Choi made the tenth defence of her WBA female super featherweight title with a points victory over Canadian Vanessa Bradford in Seoul on 19 October. Choi, 31, was previously the holder of the WBA featherweight title which she won in her first pro fight in October 2008. She was just 17 at the time and she remains the only professional boxer to win a major title in their first pro fight. She was born in North Korea and was being trained with a view to being part of the North Korean boxing team for the Olympic Games but defected with her parents and took up boxing in South Korea. She turned professional after winning 17 of her 18 amateur fights and is 18-0-1 in WBA title fights. She has held the WBA super feather title since May 2014 so hers is the longest active title tenure of any current titleholder male or female.
One last piece on female boxing. It was the sport that helped New Zealander Mea Motu to turn her life around. Married young she found herself in a dangerously abusive marriage. Things got so bad that she feared for her life and often slept in her car with her two children. She moved to Australia to escape the abuse with her husband eventually being sent to prison. Back in New Zealand she teamed up with her trainer from when she had boxed as an amateur and going to the gym helped her to deal with her traumatic past. She is now 14-0 as a pro having won New Zealand titles at lightweight then super lightweight then down to featherweight and then super featherweight. The aim now is to move to the level of international titles.
The Top Rank show in New York on 10 December is coming together nicely. An intriguing match will see Teo Lopez going up against Jose Pedraza and unbeaten heavyweight Jarred Anderson (12-0) going up against Jerry Forrest (26-5-2). Forrest has draws against Zhilei Zhang and Michael Hunter and went the distance with Kubrat Pulev in his last fight. The undercard will feature Top Rank’s stars of the future Keyshawn Davis, Xander Xayas, Bruce Carrington Delante Johnson and Joe Ward.
One night later in Belfast Michael Conlan takes on experienced Karim Guerfi and Liam Taylor defends his WBO European belt against Tyrone McKenna.
It was disappointing to see Alen Babic declined the invitation to face unbeaten German Peter Kadiru for the vacant European heavyweight title. He might be aiming to challenge for the WBC Bridgerweight title as he is No 2 in that division but Ryad Merhy, who has relinquished his secondary WBA cruiser title has also shown an interest and the title is unique in that only one sanctioning body- the WBC- has adopted the weight division. Now the EBU will have to come up with another name to fight Kadiru.
In other European news a clash of prospects will see German Abass Baraou face unbeaten Frenchman Milan Prat for the vacant European super welterweight title on the undercard to the WBA cruiserweight title defence by Arsen Goulamirian against Aleksi Egorov in Le Cannet on 19 November. This WBA title fight was to have taken place in December but Goulamirian tested positive for COVID but that still not explain why the WBA have let him go for three years without a defence. Now that he has a fight for the IBF title against Terence Crawford on 10 December Davis Avanesyan has relinquished the European title and will not defend against Spaniard Jon Miguez (17-0) in London on 19 November as originally planned. The EBU have appointed unbeaten Frenchman Jordy Weiss (29-0) as co-challenger with Miguez and called for purse offers by 15 November. Yvan Mendy will make the first defence of his EBU lightweight title in an excellent match against unbeaten Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk in London on December 3. The EBU have also put out Jairo Noriega’s flyweight title defence against Tommy Frank to purse offers with a closing date of 15 November.
Interesting cruiserweight fight this weekend as experienced Pole Mateusz Masternak (46-5) tackles unbeaten Australian Jason Whateley 10-0) in Zakopane on Saturday. The 6’5” Whateley will pose some problems but Masternak has a big edge in experience.
It is not just Tyson Fury who retires and unretires. Puerto Rican flyweight McWilliams Arroyo posted a notice on social media that he was retiring after 24-years in boxing but just a couple of days later took the notice down now that it has been confirmed her will get a second shot at WBC title holder Julio Cesar Martinez on 3 December. Well it is one more payday and Christmas is coming.
Good looking fight for the WBC Silver super welter title on the cards as unbeaten Frenchman Souleymane Cissokho (15-0) will clash with South African Thulani Mbenge (19-1) in Nantes on 17 December.
One of Ghana’s greatest amateur boxer Prince Amartey has died with his funeral to be held this week. He represented Ghana at the 1968 Olympics where he lost to Britain’s Eric Blake. He was back at the Games again in Munich in 1972 and won a bronze medal (alongside him on the podium was Marvin Johnson who also won a bronze medal). It was another 19 years before Ghana won another boxing medal at the Games when Samuel Takyi won a bronze medal in Tokyolastb year. In addition to his Olympic success Amartey first won gold and then bronze medal at the African championships and competed at the World Military Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was Ghana’s third boxer to win a medal at the Olympics following Clement Quartey and Eddie Blay. He served in the Ghanaian army but his health deteriorated and he had mental problems often living rough. RIP Prince.
About the Author
Born in Scotland, Eric Armit started working with Boxing News magazine in the UK in the late 1960’s initially doing records for their Boxing News Annual and compiling World, European and Commonwealth ratings for the magazine. He wrote his first feature article for Boxing News in 1973 and wrote a “World Scene” weekly column for the magazine from the late 1970’s until 2004. Armit wrote a monthly column for Boxing Digest in the USA and contributed pieces to magazines in Mexico, Italy, Australia, Spain, Argentina and other countries. Armit now writes a Weekly Report covering every major fight around the world and a bi-weekly Snips & Snipes column plus occasional general interest articles with these being taken up by boxing sites around the world. He was a member of the inaugural WBC Ratings Committee and a technical advisor to the EBU Ratings Committee and was consulted by John McCain’s research team when they were drafting the Ali Act. He is a Director and former Chairman of the Commonwealth Boxing Council. Armit has been nominated to the International Boxing Hall of Fame the past two years (2019 and 2020) to which he said, “Being on the list is an unbelievably huge honour.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eric Armit.
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