Mischa Merz (born 1964) is an Australian boxer, painter and journalist and the owner of Mischa's Boxing Central in Footscray where she has been head coach since 2013. She became part of a pioneering cohort of female boxers when she started competing in 1998 long before women were included in the Olympics. Over the years she has been determined to help grow the female branch of the sport and has prepared and coached women and girls to enter competition as well as men.
Merz won an Australian Amateur Boxing League national title in 2000 [1] and silver in her first year of competing 1998 and in 2001 in Mackay Queensland. She resumed boxing in the Masters Division in the United States in 2009 where she won the National Women's Golden Gloves. She also won her fights at the Georgia Games and the Ringside World Championships, taking home the belt in the Masters Division at that tournament. Her last fight was in New York's famous Gleason's Gym in 2011 where she lost a close decision against Natalie Davila. [2] [3] [4]
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.
Lucia Frederica Rijker is a Dutch professional boxer, kickboxer, and actress.
Michelle Sutcliffe is an English female boxer who competed in the Light Flyweight division.
Jeannine Garside is a Canadian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2010. She was a two-weight world champion, having held the WIBA super bantamweight title from 2005 to 2006; the WIBA featherweight title twice between 2006 and 2010; and the unified WBC and WBO female featherweight titles in 2010.
Stephanie "Golden Girl" Jaramillo is a former professional boxer. She has been inducted into the Amateur Athletic World Hall of Fame Museum for Outstanding Boxing Achievement.
Melissa Hernández Pacheco is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. She held the WBC female featherweight title from 2012 to 2013 and challenged once for the WBC female lightweight title in 2011.
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.
Terri Moss is a retired female boxer, and a 2015 inductee into the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame.
Bianca "Bam Bam" Elmir is an Australian boxer from Canberra, ACT. She has been the Australian Flyweight Champion and the Oceania Boxing Bantamweight Champion. Since starting to box in 2009, Elmir has aimed for one thing: to compete in the Olympics.
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.
Lauryn Eagle is an Australian professional boxer and water skiing champion. She was a contestant on the reality television show The Celebrity Apprentice Australia and is a former Miss Teen International 2004.
Naomi Fischer-Rasmussen is an Australian boxer from Western Australia. She has held Australian national titles in two weight divisions, and was the only Australian woman selected to represent the country at the 2012 Summer Olympics in boxing. She ranked number one in the world in her weight class in 2011, and finished ninth at the 2012 World Championships.
This is a timeline of women's sports, spanning from ancient history up to the 21st century. It includes both competitive sports and notable physical feats.
Sunduz "Susie" Ramadan is an Australian professional boxer. She held the IBF female bantamweight title in 2011 and the WBC female bantamweight title from 2012 to 2014.
Michael Kozlowski is a Russian-American boxing manager and trainer of Russian, Israeli, Panamanian, Chilean, and US champions, who handled the careers of Yuri Foreman, Jill Emery, Luke Campbell, Egor Plevako, Roman Greenberg. Kozlowski was the first trainer to bring Russian-Olympic boxing style to America.
Skye Brittany Nicolson is an Australian professional boxer. She is the reigning WBC featherweight world champion. As an amateur, she competed in the featherweight event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning the gold medal. Nicolson competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics. In her first bout in the women's Feather (54–57 kg) preliminaries she beat Im Ae-ji from Republic of Korea on points. She was beaten in the quarterfinals by Kariss Artingstall from Great Britain.
Natalie Jenkinson is an Australian judoka. She competed in the women's half-heavyweight event at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Te Arani Moana "Lani" Daniels is a New Zealand professional boxer who became the first New Zealand-born boxer of Māori descent to become a two-division world boxing champion. She has held the IBF female heavyweight title between May and December 2023, and the IBF Light Heavyweight title since December 2023. She is the fourth boxer of Maori descent to win a world boxing championship.
Cherneka Johnson is a Australian professional boxer. Born in New Zealand, she represents Australia in international competition. She is a two-weight world champion currently holding the WBA female bantamweight World title having previously been IBF female super-bantamweight World champion.
Marea Kirimiria Motu is a New Zealand Maori Professional Boxer.