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.
The IBA Men's World Boxing Championships and the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships are biennial amateur boxing competitions organised by the International Boxing Association, which is the sport governing body. Alongside the Olympic boxing programme, they are the highest level of competition for the sport. The championships were first held for men in 1974 and the first women's championships were held over 25 years later in 2001.
Holly Holm is an American mixed martial artist. She competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where she is a former Women's Bantamweight Champion.
Jane Couch, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2007. She became the first licensed female boxer in the United Kingdom in 1998, and won numerous world titles. Couch has since become a boxing promoter.
Rola El-Halabi is a professional German boxer of Lebanese origin and former quadruple world champion in the WIBF, UBF, WBF and WIBA.
Natasha Jonas is a British professional boxer is a two weight world champion who has held the unified WBC,and WBO female light-middleweight titles since 2022. As an amateur, she won a bronze medal in the light-welterweight division at the 2011 European Championships; bronze in the lightweight division at the 2012 AIBA World Championships; and silver in the light-welterweight division at the 2014 European Championships.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title from 2019 to 2020; and the unified 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.
Mikaela Joslin Mayer is an American professional boxer. She is a former unified female super-featherweight World champion having held the WBO and the IBF titles simultaneously. She has also been interim WBC female lightweight World champion. As an amateur she won a bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships and competed for the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics.
Anne Sophie Mathis is a French former professional boxer who competed between 1995 and 2016. She held world titles in two weight division; the WBA female super-lightweight from 2006 to 2008; the WBC female super-lightweight title in 2008; and the WIBF and WIBA welterweight titles in 2011. She also challenged once for the WBO female light-middleweight title in 2014 and the undisputed welterweight title in 2016 against Cecilia Brækhus. She is best known for her knockout win over Holly Holm in 2011 and is considered one of the biggest punchers in the history of women's boxing.
Lauren Louise Price is a Welsh professional boxer, former amateur boxer and former kickboxer and footballer. She has held the WBA, IBO, and Ring female welterweight World titles since 11 May 2024. She was the first-ever female British professional boxing champion having won the welterweight title on 6 May 2023 and holding it until vacating the belt when she became World champion. While representing Wales in the amateur sport she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal. Four years later she surpassed this achievement by winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by a gold at the 2019 World Championships. While representing Great Britain, she won gold medals at the 2019 European Games and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Myriam Lamare is a French female boxer who won world titles in the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Federation (WBF), and International Boxing Federation (IBF).
Christina Hammer is a German boxer. As a professional, she has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO female middleweight title from 2010 to 2019, becoming the youngest boxer to win a WBO world title; the WBC female middleweight title between 2016 and 2018; and the WBO female super-middleweight title in 2013. She also challenged once for the WBO female light-middleweight title in 2014 and once for the undisputed female middleweight championship against Claressa Shields in 2019.
Amy Sara Broadhurst is an Irish/British amateur boxer. She is the 2022 IBA World Light-welterweight champion, and won the gold medal in the lightweight division at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Busenaz Sürmeneli is a Turkish Olympic, world and European champion boxer.
Chantelle Cameron is an English professional boxer. She is a former world champion in two weight classes, including the former undisputed light-welterweight champion, having held the WBC title between 2020 and 2023; the IBF and Ring magazine titles between 2021 and 2023 ; and the WBA and WBO titles between November 2022 and 2023. She previously held the IBO female lightweight title from 2017 to 2019 and light-welterweight title from 2022 to 2023.
Ema Kozin is a Slovenian professional boxer who currently holds the WBC and WBO female super-welterweight titles having previously been the WBC interim female middleweight champion.
Femke Hermans is a Belgian professional boxer who is the current IBF and IBO female super-welterweight World champion. She also held the WBO female super-middleweight title in 2018, becoming the second Belgian woman to hold a major world championship.
Ségolène Lefebvre is a French professional boxer who held the WBO female super-bantamweight title from November 2021 until April 2024.
Belgium is scheduled to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from 26 July to 11 August 2024. Since the country's debut in 1900, Belgian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games except for the sparsely attended St. Louis 1904.
Belgium competed at the 2023 European Games, in Kraków, Poland from 21 June to 2 July 2023. Belgium has previously competed at the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan and at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, Belarus The Belgian Olympic Committee sent a total of 138 athletes to the Games to compete in 21 sports.
