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State of Women’s Boxing 2015
Layla McCarter has been one of the best, if not the best female boxer in the world, pound for pound. Yet, few boxing fans know who she is, outside of the hardcore fans of the sport.
Few experts would refute McCarter is at the top of the mountain when it comes to skills. She hasn’t lost a fight since 2007 when Melissa Hernandez pulled the trick. Since then, lightweight McCarter has remained undefeated and knocked out a junior middleweight champion in the process. In her last fight she defeated the very skillful Hernandez to avenge her last defeat.
But the world only knows about Norway’s Cecilia Braekhus and Belgium’s Delfine Persoon, who fight in Europe where female boxing enjoys a large following. Their promoters are able to give them large purses, much larger than any American female fighters see. They enjoy home-town fights against others in almost all of their fights.
Are they better than McCarter?
That’s the current state of affairs with female boxing as the best boxers are not necessarily the undefeated big money-makers in Europe or Latin America.
With the exodus of several top notch female fighters to mixed martial arts, women’s pro boxing saw a sudden shift at the top of the realm.
Gone to MMA are Holly Holm, Ana Julaton and Jessica Rakoczy, who were good athletes and well suited for MMA. A number of other boxers fled to MMA, where a large door has opened for female fighters. What remains is a strong, more- skilled flank of female prizefighters in the women’s boxing scene.
Amateur girls are finally finding an opening worldwide and many are expected to shine in the next Olympic games slated for Brazil in 2016. American girls are jockeying for position on the U.S. team that saw only three positions in 2012. The next Olympics will have more openings. Amateurs in the U.S. and other countries have been able to gather sponsors.
Yes, sponsors have found their way to amateur boxing, yet not professional boxing.
It’s a strange paradox.
Amateur girls like Mikaela Mayer, Claressa Shields, Queen Underwood, Marlen Esparza and others worldwide have sponsor backing. That’s tremendous. But professional boxers rarely have any sponsors.
Pro Female Boxing
For the last five years, not one American girl was featured on a televised fight card. Yet, Mexican girls were featured almost weekly on Spanish language television broadcast in the U.S. How was that not an indicator that female boxing has a large audience?
American Latinos have always supported live boxing and televised fight cards. It’s a major reason that networks like HBO, Showtime, Fox Sports 1, ESPN, NBC Sports Network and others are televising boxing. Latinos are almost maniacal in their appetite for boxing and have shown a healthy appetite for female boxing.
Need proof?
Just watch Spanish language television like Azteca television, which almost has a weekly dose of female boxing. They have brought Jackie Nava, Arely Mucino, Mariana Juarez and Ibeth Silva to U.S. living rooms, yet American girls who are their equals or better, such as Melinda Cooper, Celina Salazar and Crystal Morales have not been televised to an American audience.
“I find it hard to believe that Mexico, a country known for its machismo, respects the sport of female boxing more than the United States, which is considered the land of opportunity,” said Felipe Leon, boxing writer for Fightnews.com.
No opportunities on televised fight cards have been offered by television networks nor have promoters of men’s boxing like Top Rank, Main Events or Golden Boy Promotions offered any openings to female bouts on their cards.
Women’s Boxing convention
Recently, in Las Vegas, the WBC held a convention and women’s boxing was a major topic on the weeklong agenda. The WBC, which is based in Mexico City, has supported female boxing for an entire decade. But promoters in the U.S. have not opened any doors for the women.
“I sincerely hope that Oscar De La Hoya comes through on his promise that he made at the WBC female convention of doing something with women’s boxing in the U.S., perhaps in 2015,” said Leon, who lives in Tijuana and covers boxing on both sides of the border. “The exposure and credibility it would gain with Golden Boy Promotions featuring at least one female fight on their cards will be unmeasurable.”
Sue Fox, a former pro boxer and the owner of WBAN.com, which covers female boxing, said television has been a major obstacle for women’s boxing in this country only.
“Without media exposure it is difficult to build fan bases,” said Fox, who added that women are also finding it hard to get on fight cards. “Without women being featured on televised cards fans don’t know they exist.”
Las Vegas prizefighter McCarter finds it ironic that she lives and trains in the “fight capital of the world” yet cannot find a spot on a big fight card in her hometown.
“They can’t say that men’s boxing is more popular. Some of these male fighters can’t even sell out a small show, but they are included in these big pay-per-view fight cards,” said McCarter. “A lot of these men boxers are boring. I can’t see why they are on the fight cards. Nobody wants to see them.”
McCarter has been a proven ticket seller in Las Vegas but it’s the minimal purses that have kept her from being able to have a solid career.
“I wish we could be able to simply train and fight like the men,” said McCarter, 35, who has been fighting professionally since 1998 and has fought in 58 pro bouts. “Women’s boxing is still suffering. Our sport needs the promoters who have money and networks to support women’s boxing as they do for the men. Put us on where we can be seen and pay us closer to what we deserve. That will make all the difference.”
McCarter’s not alone when it comes to wishing women’s boxing could get a helping hand.
Al Applerose, a director of a female boxing promotion company based in Southern California called Arqangel Promotions, said that for decades women’s boxing has worked in the shadows.
“Even though it’s very legit, it needs to be legitimized and accepted by the boxing fan (sports audience) population,” said Applerose whose company handles Melinda Cooper, Crystal Morales and Celina Salazar among others. “In this day and age TV is the measure of legitimization and acceptance. Women’s boxing needs that platform so the sports audience can appreciate it.”
In 2014 the WBC held a women’s convention where Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the Mexico-based sanctioning organization, gave his promise to aid the female side of the sport.
“I think women’s boxing has been better in a worldwide sense,” said Leon, who consistently follows and reports on female boxing. “Unfortunately it has not gotten the same traction in the United States. I think the talent pool right now in the United States is at an all-time high with exciting potential match ups throughout many divisions.”
James Pena, trainer for Melinda Cooper, said he’s surprised that American television has not seen the potential that other countries have seen.
“I don’t know what promoters or television networks are thinking,” said Pena, who lives in Las Vegas. “Women’s boxing can’t miss but these people don’t see it. They’re basically afraid of a sure thing. It’s their loss.”
Growth continues
The female boxing world has more than 1,200 professionals who work out daily in gyms in Tokyo, Japan to Las Vegas, Nevada. Almost every continent has female prizefighters toiling in gyms alongside their male counterparts. Female boxers have been around for more than 40 years, yet they still fly under the radar.
McCarter, who is arguably the best of all female boxers, turns 36 in April and has been breaking her head against the wall of criticism toward female boxing her entire career.
One day, a man about 6’1” and 220 pounds entered her gym and saw her training. He claimed he was a former military commando with martial arts training and no women could last a round with him. McCarter entered the boxing ring against him and promptly knocked him down within 20 seconds. He took off the gloves and left the gym.
Other female boxers have similar stories. But promoters and TV networks continue to ignore the women and those fans that follow them. Female boxing stands ready for a breakout year.
“It grew even more so in Mexico and in other parts of the world like Europe and Japan with women again being put front and center on many televised main events. We even had the first ever all-women convention in September,” said Leon, whose hometown of Tijuana has groomed two world champion females in Nava and Kenia Enriquez.
Will 2015 be the year?
At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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Two below-the-radar super welterweight stars show off their skills this weekend from different parts of Southern California.
One in particular, Charles Conwell, co-headlines a show in Oceanside against a hard-hitting Mexican while another super welter star Sadriddin Akhmedov faces another Mexican hitter in Commerce.
Take your pick.
The super welterweight division is loaded with talent at the moment. If Terence Crawford remained in the division he would be at the top of the class, but he is moving up several weight divisions.
Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) faces Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs) a tall knockout puncher from Los Mochis at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Calif. on Saturday April 19. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also features undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora. We’ll get to her later.
Conwell might be the best super welterweight out there aside from the big dogs like Vergil Ortiz, Serhii Bohachuk and Sebastian Fundora.
If you are not familiar with Conwell he comes from Cleveland, Ohio and is one of those fighters that other fighters know about. He is good.
He has the James “Lights Out” Toney kind of in-your-face-style where he anchors down and slowly deciphers the opponent’s tools and then takes them away piece by piece. Usually it’s systematic destruction. The kind you see when a skyscraper goes down floor by floor until it’s smoking rubble.
During the Covid days Conwell fought two highly touted undefeated super welters in Wendy Toussaint and Madiyar Ashkeyev. He stopped them both and suddenly was the boogie man of the super welterweight division.
Conwell will be facing Mexico’s taller Garcia who likes to trade blows as most Mexican fighters prefer, especially those from Sinaloa. These guys will be firing H bombs early.
Fundora
Co-headlining the Golden Boy card is Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) the undisputed flyweight champion of the world. She has all the belts and Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs) wants them.
Gabriela Fundora is the sister of Sebastian Fundora who holds the men’s WBC and WBO super welterweight world titles. Both are tall southpaws with power in each hand to protect the belts they accumulated.
Six months ago, Fundora met Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz in Las Vegas to determine the undisputed flyweight champion. The much shorter Alaniz tried valiantly to scrap with Fundora and ran into a couple of rocket left hands.
Mexico’s Badillo is an undefeated flyweight from Mexico City who has battled against fellow Mexicans for years. She has fought one world champion in Asley Gonzalez the current super flyweight world titlist. They met years ago with Badillo coming out on top.
Does Badillo have the skill to deal with the taller and hard-hitting Fundora?
When a fighter has a six-inch height advantage like Fundora, it is almost impossible to out-maneuver especially in two-minute rounds. Ask Alaniz who was nearly decapitated when she tried.
This will be Badillo’s first pro fight outside of Mexico.
Commerce Casino
Kazakhstan’s Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0, 13 KOs) is another dangerous punching super welterweight headlining a 360 Promotions card against Mexico’s Elias Espadas (23-6, 16 KOs) on Saturday at the Commerce Casino.
UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions card of about eight bouts.
Akhmedov is another Kazakh puncher similar to the great Gennady “GGG” Golovkin who terrorized the middleweight division for a decade. He doesn’t have the same polish or dexterity but doesn’t lack pure punching power.
It’s another test for the super welterweight who is looking to move up the ladder in the very crowded 154-pound weight division. 360 Promotions already has a top contender in Ukraine’s Serhii Bohachuk who nearly defeated Vergil Ortiz a year ago.
Could Bohachuk and Akhmedov fight each other if nothing else materializes?
That’s a question for another day.
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs. Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 KOs); Gabriela Fundora (15-0) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1).
Sat. UFC Fight Pass 6 p.m. Sadriddin Akhmedov (15-0) vs Elias Espadas (23-6).
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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.
Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.
Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)
Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.
The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).
Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”
A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.
Other winners:
Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon
Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney
Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire
Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix
The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.
The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.
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Bernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Spared Prison by a Lenient Judge, Chordale Booker Pursues a World Boxing Title
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 318: Aussie Action, Vegas and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
Results and Recaps from Sydney where George Kambosos Upended Late Sub Jake Wyllie
William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More
Results and Recaps from Las Vegas where Richard Torrez Jr Mauled Guido Vianello
Filip Hrgovic Defeats Joe Joyce in Manchester
Weekend Recap and More with the Accent of Heavyweights
Remembering Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Kenny Adams
Avila Perspective Chap 320: Boots Ennis and Stanionis
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City
Dzmitry Asanau Flummoxes Francesco Patera on a Ho-Hum Card in Montreal
Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser
‘Krusher’ Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’
Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welter Week in SoCal
TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts
Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City
Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser
Avila Perspective Chap 320: Boots Ennis and Stanionis
Dzmitry Asanau Flummoxes Francesco Patera on a Ho-Hum Card in Montreal
Remembering Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Kenny Adams
Weekend Recap and More with the Accent of Heavyweights
Results and Recaps from Las Vegas where Richard Torrez Jr Mauled Guido Vianello
Filip Hrgovic Defeats Joe Joyce in Manchester
Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More
History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
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Featured Articles4 weeks agoBernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
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