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.
Christy Renea Martin is an American former professional boxer. Competing from 1989 to 2012, she held the WBC female super welterweight title in 2009. Martin was the first female boxer elected to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016, and was also elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, which was the first year that women were on the ballot.
Carlos De León, also known as "Sugar" De Leon, was a Puerto Rican boxer who made history by becoming the first cruiserweight to win the world title twice. Subsequently, he kept breaking his own record for the most times as cruiserweight champion by regaining the title on two further occasions.
Melissa Del Valle is an American multiple champion in women's boxing.
John Henry Stracey MBE is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1969 to 1978. He is a former welterweight world champion, having held the WBC and lineal welterweight titles between 1975 and 1976. At regional level, he held the British and European welterweight titles between 1973 and 1975, and is ranked by BoxRec as the eighth best British welterweight of all time.
Valerie Rebecca Mahfood is a female boxer who is a former world Super Middleweight and Light Heavyweight champion. Known as "The Big Bad Wolfe", Mahfood is known in the boxing world by her brawling style of fighting, and by her traditional trademark purple mohawk. She now resides in Groves, Texas.
Brenda Burnside is an American former women's boxing "journeywoman". Despite being given such title by boxing fans and critics, she was well known in the boxing world for the quality of opposition she faced; and she contended for a world title once. She fought in the Super Flyweight division.
Andrea DeShong is a former United States female boxer who is best remembered for defeating Christy Martin in Martin's fourth professional bout.
Alicia Ashley is a women's boxing participant who is the former WBC female world super bantamweight champion. Ashley is a Jamaican-American. Born in Jamaica, she moved to the United States at a young age. She is the younger sister of chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley and former world kickboxing champion Devon Ashley.
Tracy Michelle Byrd is an American female boxer.
Daisy Lang is a former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2004. She is a three division world champion and was the first Bulgarian woman to capture a world title, having held the WIBF super-flyweight, bantamweight, and super-bantamweight titles between 1999 and 2004.
Cecilia Carmen Linda Brækhus is a Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. She reigned as the undisputed female welterweight boxing champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously. Brækhus is also one of only 11 boxers in history, male or female, to hold all four major world titles simultaneously. She also held the IBO title from 2016 to 2020, and is currently the interim WBC super welterweight champion.
Gail Grandchamp is a retired American female boxer. On 16 April 1992, after eight years in court litigation in Massachusetts, she gained the right to become a boxer, as a state Superior Court judge deemed it was illegal to deny someone a chance to box based on gender. During her efforts to gain the right to box as an amateur, she passed the age of 36, the maximum age for amateur fighters. She instead pursued a career as professional boxer.
Arturo Leon is a Mexican-American former boxer from Arizona, United States. He was a junior lightweight who once challenged Alexis Arguello for the Nicaraguan's World Boxing Council's world Junior Lightweight title, losing by 15 round unanimous decision.
Sarah Mahfoud is a Faroese-born Danish professional boxer who won the IBF female featherweight title in July 2020. She subsequently lost to Amanda Serrano in a title unification bout in Manchester on 24 September 2022. As of April 2024, she is ranked as the world's second best active female featherweight by BoxRec and The Ring.
Joey Olivo is an American former professional boxer of Mexican descent who competed from 1976 to 1989. He held the WBA world light flyweight title in 1985 and challenged for the WBC world light flyweight title in 1981. At regional level he held the WBC-NABF light flyweight title in 1983; the IBF-USBA flyweight title in 1984; and the WBC-NABF flyweight title in 1988.
Gabriela Celeste Alaniz is an Argentine professional boxer who is currently the WBA, WBC, WBO & The Ring female world flyweight champion.
Christy Martin vs. Deirdre Gogarty was a women's boxing match that took place on March 16, 1996, between American Christy Martin and Irishwoman Deirdre Gogarty. The contest was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada, on the Las Vegas Strip, as part of the undercard of a pay-per-view championship match between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno with 1.1 million buys. Surprising viewers with the participants' ferocity, strength, and technical skill, Martin vs. Gogarty is often called the fight that "put women's boxing on the map", or "the bout that made women's boxing". The fight was won by Martin, who was bleeding profusely, in a six-round unanimous decision, and led to her being the first female boxer featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
The history of the sport of boxing in Puerto Rico is a varied and extensive one. Boxing is a major sport in the Caribbean country, and the sport has produced many champions for the island, both in the amateur and professional ranks, and among men and women fighters.
Mexican 
