Of all the professional sports, boxing has the worst reputation for dubious ethics. The sports’ controversial scoring decisions and corrupt promoters need no introduction. Boxing’s legacy is also filled with death. Benny Paret and Duk-Koo Kim died many years ago but their stories cast a long shadow.
Add to that, the many sad stories of ex-fighters who were financially abused by managers or met early death through pugilistic dementia. Watching the great Muhammad Ali in his latter years was sad and excruciating. Yet of all the sports, none has the potential of rags to riches legend making like boxing.
Sugar Ray Leonard talked about eating out of garbage cans as a child in Washington, DC. Ex-convict Bernard Hopkins turned his life around through boxing and achieved immortality by becoming middleweight champ. Manny Pacquiao’s story is the most recent epochal rise from poverty to wealth. Hopefully, Pacquiao will retire before the effects of his many fights catch up with him.
It would logically follow that those who want to taste boxing’s ability to transform lives would materialize from every cohort of the population. We tend to think of women’s professional boxing as a rather new phenomenon, but it has been with us longer than you think.
The first women’s championship bout was held in 1988 in New York. Women’s boxing was a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis, Missouri. The first boxing license issued to an American woman was in 1975 to Carole Svendsen.
Transexuals have been participating in kick boxing in Asia for many years. As members of this population seek participation in a growing number of sports, the World Boxing Council has decided to take an unlikely leadership stand by announcing plans for a uniquely transgender division.
With boxing’s history of death in or adjacent to the ring, the sport’s wiser elders are not willing to experiment with the potentially deadly prospect of transexual women competing against natal women. By doing so, boxing can conveniently sidestep the fairness controversies found in swimming and other sports where transsexual women overwhelm and dominate natal women.
They say politics make strange bedfellows. Boxing’s checkered history makes it an unlikely party to advance a progressive agenda. It’s place at the pinnacle of uber machismo sports is not without some interesting gender and sexuality footnotes.
Emile Griffiths was gay and the number one ranked fighter in the world when he sent Benny Paret to the grave in 1962. Mike Tyson threatened to make challenger Donovan “Razor” Ruddock his “girlfriend” in an apparent jibe at his sexuality. Lennox Lewis’ former trainer, Frank Maloney, eventually left the sport to live as a trans woman.
There is a perpetual debate within boxing as to whether the sport can save itself from the weight of its own greed and corruption. With this unlikely venture into the world of equality and inclusion, boxing may have secured it’s place as the unlikeliest ally of equity seeking groups. It may end up garnering a new legion of woke fans and save itself in the process.
Sources
WBC Announces Plan for Transgender Boxing Division in 2023
The World Boxing Council is planning to launch a new transgender division in 2023. “We are creating a set of rules and…
boec.com
The Underground History Of Women’s Boxing, In 24 Surprising Photos
Though women’s boxing still struggles to break into the mainstream, there is a long and storied history of female…
allthatsinteresting.com
“I’m Gonna Make Sure You Kiss Me Good With Those Big Lips”: Mike Tyson Once Threatened to Make an…
There is no denying that the former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, is a scary individual. It is also worth…
www.essentiallysports.com
Boxing legend Frank Maloney reveals new life as a woman
Frank Maloney, the former boxing promoter who guided Lennox Lewis to the world heavyweight title, has revealed that he…
www.theguardian.com
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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