Full Stop – Giving Women’s Boxing the Proper Weighting…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

The last few years have seen an explosion in women’s boxing including headlining a night in the iconic Madison Square Gardens. It has come on a long way for many of us in the UK, since Jane Couch needed the law to even get her into a British ring to fight.

But equality is not about things being the same. Equity is about making things fit the unique circumstances that present themselves. And so, whilst parity is very much part and parcel of the thrust of many a debate involving female pugilism, especially around prize money, there is still for many a few differences between those who compete in the women’s game and those who do not.

I have to say that I had not thought much about this particular topic until Shannon Courteney lost her title on the scales. Afterwards, the fact she then got blasted out by Jamie Mitchell in the ring was, for me, a side issue. The worry she had of being unable to make weight must have, ironically weighed heavily on her mind.

So much in fact, that she had been out the day before, doing all she could to lose that weight, but she was unable to do so… full stop… period.

The pain of the loss of your title when you have a condition from which you are unable to escape because you are female must also be just as galling. Courteney hit the scales at a time in her monthly cycle when Mother Nature piles on a few pounds to ease your menstruation.

There is literally nothing you can do about it.

Given that she was beaten in the ring as well, there is little that was ever going to be said about it thereafter, but it is an issue likely to raise itself again. After all, the debate over cutting weight and getting down to your fighting weights for particular times can also be a debate that engulfs men. Men moan about cutting weight and the recent negotiations between Connor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. is apparently all about the weight and rehydration clause in the contract.

Once boxers hit the scales and make weight the day before their fight, at the weigh in, there is no need thereafter to remain at that weight. You can then bulk up with water and most boxers do. Benn is a welterweight and has to raise to a weight well above that to take on a middleweight like Eubank Jr. who shall come down in weight. But after the weigh in they can rehydrate, and it will be only Eubank Jr. who can put all their bulk back on. Benn would then enter the ring like a pinky facing a thumb. A rehydration clause means another weigh in on the day which limits the piling on of the pounds that either fighter can indulge in. It also means that the risks associated with fighting are limited – not avoided.

And as you heard when Jake Paul cancelled his entire fight card, the decision was prompted by his opponent not being able to, as the governing body was concerned, cut weight safely. At a weigh in Hasim Rahman Jr. was not managing to get his weight down – Rahman Jr. is a heavyweight – for a fight around cruiserweight. Weight is a gender-neutral issue.

Each of the governing bodies have dealt with this over the years but never has there been a more pressing need to address it. There’s not a particular tragedy in which one fighter has lost their life or where the weight difference has led to a coma induced crisis but must sport always wait till one to sort things out? This absence makes it perfect timing to resolve it now. Fighters won’t resolve it, managers and promoters won’t touch it, less their fighter is the one disadvantaged, so we need the governing bodies to step in.

It is an area where different remedies to similar issues would prove that we are making strides in dealing with the rise in female participation.

Former WBC super-featherweight champion Terri Harper spoke last year, of how, when the female fights were much less prominent, it was something they were worried about but had to try and “wing it”. Now she tracks her cycle with precision in case it causes issues at weigh ins.

Of course, in sport, your body is your principal tool of your trade and honesty is the best way forward to get the highest level of performance from it, therefore the idea that you do not discuss your menstrual cycle with your coach and training team may appear somewhat counterproductive. But the fact that women are having to explain publicly about their cycle is in and of itself an embarrassment to many. It would make more sense for those powers to be to accept that it can take women 33% longer in time to burn the equivalent number of calories as a man. Women’s weight will be different depending on the phase of their cycle. In health terms, competitive low body fat percentages also come at a risk of impacting menstrual cycles and there is a lot of very decent, and better than I can provide, advice out there for women to heed.

As for the men in charge, all they need to do is to ask women what they need and, for the betterment of the sport, take the relevant steps.