As we prepare for the first bouts to kick off at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships 2025 in Niš, we recognize the great work of our female boxers on International Women’s Day. Praising great achievements of all women involved in boxing, we are announcing the celebration of International Women’s Week powered by the IBA, which will last until the very last day of the championships on 16 March.

The campaign launched by the IBA will celebrate our women in boxing who deserve the heartfelt gratitude for their invaluable contributions to the global development of our beloved sport.

Women have always had to fight for their deserved spotlight in sports. Old attitudes created barriers to participation, with many discouraged, especially in martial arts due to the combat nature of the sports.

Instead, great coaching and pioneering women created history over the years, laying the groundwork for those who came after them.

Female boxers can be traced back to the earlier 18^th century through the likes of Elizabeth Wilkinson, an English prizefighter involved in a thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene in London. In this era, boxing was, like today, a working-class sport, with the female boxers showing defiance to what the upper class expected women to behave like.

Women’s boxing even appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis.

After years of prohibition throughout the 20^th century, the sport became more accepted for women in the nineties. Christy Martin and Deirdre Gogarty’s 1996 professional bout is considered the match that “put women’s boxing on the map”, featuring on the undercard of Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno. The United Kingdom, where bare-knuckle boxing was once permitted approximately 300 years before; issued its first license to a woman, Jane Couch, in 1998.

Shortly after, IBA held the first edition of the Women’s World Boxing Championships in Scranton, United States, in 2001. It was the first amateur World championships for female boxers in history, bringing 125 athletes from 30 nations. It would be another 11 years before women’s boxing was added to the Olympic Games program.

Just 22 years later, the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships set a new record for number of competitors, with 324 boxers going to New Delhi, India in 2023. In 2022, a record 73 Member Federations competed in Istanbul.

IBA’s involvement in development of women’s boxing at an amateur level created a more sophisticated professional set-up too. While Indian boxing super star Mary Kom – who won a record six world titles – would not turn professional, others would.

Katie Taylor is perhaps the best example of a boxer who is acclaimed as an amateur and a professional. The Irish fighter won five world titles, six European Championships titles and an Olympic gold medal the year the sport was introduced at London 2012.

In 2016, Taylor made her professional debut and became a WBA champion in her seventh match. She became the undisputed World lightweight champion across five promotions between 2019 and 2024 and has been the undisputed World super lightweight champion over six promotions since 2023.

Another would be American great Claressa Shields, who won two IBA World champion titles back-to-back in 2014 and 2016, later creating a pathway to the professional ranks, where she currently holds a 16-0 record.

Without these pathways, the move to professional boxing becomes more difficult for female boxers. IBA’s ongoing support means more female boxers can stay in the sport thanks to prize money and development funding as they aim to bring men’s and women’s boxing onto an equal footing. IBA also allows amateur boxers to have an opportunity to test themselves in a professional setting.

We would like to pay tribute to all female boxers who forged a path for those who came afterwards and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring women’s boxing continues to thrive in 2025, through the IBA.

Follow IBA on social media to support the International Women’s Week campaign. You can watch IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships Niš 2025 on IBA YouTube channel.

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Media contacts:

Elena Sobol, Head of Communications and PR, International Boxing Association: elena.sobol@iba.sport