IWD 2025: The five biggest fights ever in women’s boxing

Friday 07 March 2025 8:00 am
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Thursday 06 March 2025 3:36 pm

In a transfer designed to coincide with Worldwide Ladies’s Day this weekend, the Royal Albert Corridor is staging an evening of all-female boxing headlined by the unification bout between Britons Natasha Jonas and Lauren Worth on Friday. 

For one night time solely, the grand London venue finest recognized for staging the Proms will probably be full of the sound of a possible 5,000 combat followers and a few of the nation’s prime feminine boxers attempting to knock seven bells out of one another.

Veteran Jonas, 40, is because of defend her WBC and IBF welterweight world titles towards Worth, who’s placing up her WBA and IBO belts and trying to preserve an unbeaten begin to her eight-fight skilled profession.

Additionally on the invoice are Londoner Caroline Dubois – youthful sister of males’s heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois – who is about to defend her WBC world light-weight title towards South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin, and Olympic medallist Karriss Artingstall’s all-English featherweight conflict with Raven Chapman.

An thrilling card regarded much more interesting till Paris 2024 history-maker Cindy Ngamba, the primary individual to win an Olympic medal when competing as a refugee, pulled out of her scheduled combat with Kirstie Bavington, citing harm.

Nevertheless it stays a landmark event for ladies’s boxing, which has loved important development in the previous few years, pushed by the likes of Eire’s Katie Taylor. With that in thoughts, listed below are the largest fights within the historical past of girls’s boxing.

The largest fights in girls’s boxing

1. Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano, April 2022

The primary girls’s combat to headline Madison Sq. Backyard attracted a crowd of greater than 19,000 to the long-lasting New York venue. It was groundbreaking in monetary phrases too, with each fighters selecting up seven-figure purses.

Taylor-Serrano pulled in an extra 1.5m viewers on Dazn, whose app was probably the most downloaded in Eire and the highest-grossing sports activities app of the weekend. 

The combat itself greater than lived up the billing, with Taylor retaining her undisputed light-weight crown by way of cut up determination after 10 basic rounds. It was hailed as one of the best occasion of the yr by each Sports activities Illustrated and The Ring Journal and set a brand new normal for ladies’s boxing.

2. Claressa Shields v Savannah Marshall, October 2022

Only a few months later London bought in on the motion when promoter Boxxer assembled the largest all-female card in UK historical past on the O2. Round 20,000 attended and greater than 1m watched on Sky Sports activities, whereas ESPN additionally carried the present within the US.

American Shields, the self-styled GWOAT (Biggest Girl Of All Time), lived as much as her billing to turn out to be undisputed middleweight champion and avenge her loss to Brit Marshall within the newbie ranks. Each fighters banked seven-figure funds. 

A stellar card additionally featured Mikaela Mayer, Alicia Baumgardner and Caroline Dubois and proved that Taylor-Serrano was no business flash within the pan.

3. Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano, November 2024

The long-awaited rematch between Taylor and Serrano, on the undercard of the Netflix present between YouTuber-turned-pugilist Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, obliterated viewer data.

With a worldwide dwell viewers of 74m, the streaming large mentioned it was not simply the most-watched occasion in girls’s boxing however in girls’s sport extra extensively.

As soon as once more Taylor prevailed to retain her undisputed standing, this time at gentle welterweight and, whereas in viewers phrases you may make a case for it being No1 the event itself did much less for ladies’s boxing than another occasions.

4. Laila Ali v Jacqui Frazier Lyde, June 2001

Lengthy after their fathers loved a legendary rivalry within the ring, Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier Lyde revived the meat in a high-profile conflict in New York. Ali received a basic battle between the 2 unbeaten fighters on factors and neither lady ever misplaced once more.

Lengthy earlier than girls’s boxing picked up contemporary momentum – and earlier than the WBA, WBC and even the IOC started sanctioning feminine fights – Ali-Frazier put it on the map and compelled a rethink of what is likely to be doable within the sport.

5. Katie Taylor v Chantelle Cameron, Might 2023

Taylor’s twenty third skilled combat was her first in her native Eire and in addition proved to be her first defeat. Initially set to be a rematch with Serrano, Cameron was drafted in after the Puerto Rican bought injured and duly delivered a serious upset. 

Taylor received the rematch six months later to turn out to be a two-weight undisputed champion. Each fights had been held in entrance of 9,000 followers at Dublin’s 3Arena.