Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
Deirdre Gogarty is a retired Irish female boxer and current coach of the Ragin' Cajun Boxing Club. She hails from Drogheda and attended Drogheda Grammar School. Before a law was passed in Ireland preventing women from engaging in boxing events, Gogarty was able to begin her career with a six-round decision win against Anne-Marie Griffin. However, when that law was passed, Gogarty could not engage in competition in Ireland. In consequence, she was based in Lafayette, Louisiana and was managed and trained by Beau Williford.
Laila Amaria Ali is an American television personality and retired professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female super middleweight titles, and the IWBF light heavyweight title. Ali is widely regarded by many within the sport as one of the greatest female professional boxers of all time. She is the daughter of boxer Muhammad Ali.
Lucia Frederica Rijker is a Dutch professional boxer, kickboxer, and actress.
Sumya Anani is a retired American professional female boxer nicknamed "The Island Girl." She was 5'6" and boxed as a junior welterweight. She is best known for a 1996 bout which left her opponent severely injured and may have served as an inspiration for the film Million Dollar Baby. Outside the ring, she is a yoga instructor and holistic healer.
Ann Wolfe is an American retired professional boxer, trainer and actress. Wolfe held world titles in three different weight classes simultaneously and is regarded as one of the greatest female boxers of all time. She is a member of the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame.
The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) is the governing body of professional boxing in the United Kingdom.
Richard John Hatton is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships in the light-welterweight division, and one at welterweight. In 2005 he was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine, the Boxing Writers Association of America, and ESPN.
Frank Warren is an English boxing manager and promoter and the founder of Queensberry Promotions. Warren was also a founder of the British boxing television channel BoxNation which ran for over 11 years from 2012.
Jaime "Hurricane" Clampitt is a female Canadian boxer.
Matthew James "Matty" Hatton is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2013. He held the European welterweight title from 2010 to 2011, and challenged once for the WBC light-middleweight title in the latter year. He is the younger brother of former two-division world champion of boxing, Ricky Hatton, and fought on the undercard of many of Ricky's high-profile fights.
Holly Rene Holm Kirkpatrick is an American mixed martial artist. She currently competes in the women’s Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship(UFC), where she is a former Women's Bantamweight Champion. As of September 17, 2024, she is #8 in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings
Graciela Casillas is an American former boxer and kickboxer who competed in the bantamweight division. After training in several traditional martial arts, Casillas began competing as a kickboxer in 1976, and in 1979 she became the first fighter to hold world titles in both boxing and kickboxing by taking the World Women's Boxing Association's and the World Kickboxing Association's bantamweight championships. Although Casillas' Boxrec record is 5–0, Black Belt Magazine reported in May 1984 that she had 27 boxing matches, winning 15 by KO up to that point.
Nicola Virginia Adams is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2017 to 2019. She retired with an undefeated record and held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female flyweight title in 2019. As an amateur, she became the first female boxer to become an Olympic champion after winning gold at London 2012, and the first double Olympic champion following a second gold medal at Rio 2016, both in the flyweight division. As of 27 May 2016 she was the reigning Olympic, World and European Games champion at flyweight, and won the entire set of amateur championships available to her – Olympic, Commonwealth and European Games' titles, and the World, European and European Union championships.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in five weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female light heavyweight title and the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Federation (WBF) female heavyweight titles since July 2024; WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two and three division world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of October 2022, she is ranked the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.
Juliette Anne Winter is an English professional boxer who was the first woman to win a BBBofC-sanctioned professional women's title on 23 July 2006, defeating former ABA super flyweight champion Shanee Martin in an eight-round fight.
The International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF) is a sports hall of fame located in Vancouver, Washington. It is dedicated to women's boxing, and was started by Sue TL Fox and her website Women Boxing Archive Network. The Hall of Fame has a board of 11 members, who vote on nominees who are submitted to the IWBHF by the public. Terri Moss, a 2015 inductee, says that the IWBHF helps show women's accomplishments in the sport. Their primary mission is to "call honorary attention to those professional female boxers along with men and women whose contributions to the sport and its athletes, from outside the ring, have been instrumental in growing female boxing."
Daniella Smith is a New Zealand former professional boxer. She became the first female fighter to win an IBF title, having held the welterweight version from 2010 to 2011, and is the third New Zealand-born person to win a boxing world title, after Torpedo Bill Murphy (1890) and Joseph Parker in 2016 with World Boxing Organisation. Smith is also ranked pound-for-pound number one in New Zealand of all time in the Women's division.
Women Boxing Archive Network is an American-based women's boxing website. The website reports women's boxing news, archives women's boxing history, publishes women's boxing results, creates their own women's boxing world ranking and profiles women boxers. The website was founded and is owned by former professional boxer Sue Fox; it began in May 1998.
Chloe Watson is an English professional boxer who is the European female flyweight champion.
