Female fight fans

Afternoon all,

I couldn't help but notice that this boxing board and other similar forums on the net are dominated by male posters.

Most other sports, it would seem, have a considerable female supporting contingent.

Tennis has a huge female following. From my experience I would say at that at least 30% of the fan support in tennis is female. Players such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are hugely popular on Facebook and (particularly in the case of Nadal) a lot of their support is drawn from females. Of course it helps that tennis has a whole tour dedicated to female athletes.

Likewise, football has more recently garnered a lot of support from female fans. Women can be seen in abundance at football matches.

Darts and snooker also seem to attract a fair share of female fans.

The same can be said of track and field athletics, equestrian sports, swimming etc.

Boxing seems to be one of the few sports which draws it's fanbase almost exclusively from males (motorsport may be another).

I haven't been to a live boxing event, so my assumptions about lack of female interest may be incorrect.

However, assuming they are correct, I have a few questions to consider:

1) What do you think are the reasons for this?
2) Would boxing benefit from attracting support from the fairer sex? Bearing in mind a potential market of half the world's population.
3) How could boxing draw more support from females?
4) Are there any current or have there been any past boxers who bucked this trend? What were the reasons for this?

Your thoughts are welcome.

There are no girls on the internet.

Women go to boxing events, get very dressed up for it too. It's quite a masculine sport though.

Oscar De la Hoya had a big female fanbase.

Scott,

I get your last two points,

but 'there are no girls on the internet'?

Not sure about that. Tennis forums are filled with girls and they are just as vociferous as the guys.

It's a known fact. Any 'female' on the internet is a man pretending to be a woman.

oscar del a hoya would be an exception to that rule

emancipator wrote:Tennis forums are filled with girls and they are just as vociferous as the guys.

You mean posters who claim to be girls, it is something quite different.

Emancipator, attending a lot of live events have to say it depends very much who is fighting. At the smaller hall shows the audience does tend to be more male, however at a lot of big fights there are a lot of women there. Going back some years Naz fights used to have a very mixed audience and a lot younger audience than the average fight crowd. Just speaking from a personal point of view the sainted Mrs Rowley attends pretty much every fight I go to and not under duress I should add.

Your best person to ask would be onetwo, he was a teenage girl not too long ago.

Women have their place in Sport. For example in cricket matches it is perfectly acceptable for the scorer, tea lady or bar lady to be female. It is a very forward thinking sport in terms of sexual equality.

there is always girls at boxing matches, usually in bikini's holding the round signs

Any chance we can debate this without turning into sexist oiks, we're better than that surely.

No the females are quite obviously females on the tennis forums.

They have an intense like of their hero that goes beyond the realms of mancrush and they can be b****y as hell.

Besides, they spend a lot of time discussing hair, outfits, and emotional stuff that most of the guys don't even notice.

Of course some the girls could be supposed lesbian fans who are actually guys pretending to be such. Wasn't there something about a lesbian blogger who was really a man on the news recently?

rowley wrote:Any chance we can debate this without turning into sexist oiks, we're better than that surely.

OOOOOOW, perhaps there are females on boxing forums

Even here, we have the epic Pauline and her Tyson Fury crush. I refuse to even entertain the notion that it is a man.

Is Coxy female?

He's quite emotional

all the posters on 606v2 boxing are guys.....except the poster that won the Primetime comp with their first post.......

rowley wrote:Any chance we can debate this without turning into sexist oiks, we're better than that surely.

i wouldnt bet the bank on that one rowley.

We dont want them old tarts infiltrating out jolly boys sport. On saying that they would be a lot better than the football bunch who tag along and some of them could be on the fit side. Real em' in I reckon

Even the unisex sport of tennis has considerably less female posters than male.

It all boils down to the fact women are less likely to waste their time on things such as discussion forums

tennis seem to be able to play tennis to a better standard than women boxers, maybe thats why they like it

TopHat24/7 wrote:all the posters on 606v2 boxing are guys.....except the poster that won the Primetime comp with their first post.......

Was that the one which was posted eleven hours after the closing time?

Women dont seem too interested in talking boxing or even watching it on the box, but many of the fights i've been to have had many women at ringside & as mentioned they are usually dressed up (trophy) types.

I know its generalising, stereotyping and borders on "women know your limits" but it seems alot of women like to go see two blokes knock bits off each other rather than discuss records, styles & who might have beat who had they fought?

BALTIMORA wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:all the posters on 606v2 boxing are guys.....except the poster that won the Primetime comp with their first post.......

Was that the one which was posted eleven hours after the closing time?

how'd you guess.....?

I think women going to boxing matches is more of the occassion and being in it more than the fight itself, no doubt you will occassionally find a woman who genuinely loves boxing but I imagine they're pretty rare! (And perhaps not lookers but one can hope!) Perhaps then I could try discussing as to why Floyd Mayweather Jr's style was all wrong for Diego Corrales without getting a blank stare!

Super D Boon wrote:Even the unisex sport of tennis has considerably less female posters than male.

It all boils down to the fact women are less likely to waste their time on things such as discussion forums

If they spent all their time on forums, how the hell would the dishes and ironing get done?

I guess we can't then

rowley wrote:I guess we can't then

Gotta remember rowley that some on here haven't seen a woman without staples through her chesticles.

BALTIMORA wrote:

rowley wrote:I guess we can't then

Gotta remember rowley that some on here haven't seen a woman without staples through her chesticles.

Whereas you are known as Don Juan de Baltimora.......!

I think it would be a gesture to let them have their own section to discuss the female version of sports. Clunge corner perhaps?

Would slightly reduce your chances of ever interacting with a woman but if you're willing to make the sacrifice fair play to you.

Don't worry jeff, I'm sure your wife isn't reading

I'm sure you're right Scott, think I may spend the rest of the afternoon making a load of racist jokes, see how readily those are tolerated.

razzaq wrote:

Super D Boon wrote:Even the unisex sport of tennis has considerably less female posters than male.

It all boils down to the fact women are less likely to waste their time on things such as discussion forums

If they spent all their time on forums, how the hell would the dishes and ironing get done?

Good point. Although I'm all for equality, let the women go out to work and the men do the dishes but I really wish they'd take the ironing back!

AlexHuckerby wrote:I think women going to boxing matches is more of the occassion and being in it more than the fight itself, no doubt you will occassionally find a woman who genuinely loves boxing but I imagine they're pretty rare! (And perhaps not lookers but one can hope!) Perhaps then I could try discussing as to why Floyd Mayweather Jr's style was all wrong for Diego Corrales without getting a blank stare!

Actually it's rumoured Jenna J from East Side Boxing knows her stuff and is supposed to be a looker!

Super D Boon wrote:Actually it's rumoured Jenna J from East Side Boxing knows her stuff and is supposed to be a looker!

She's a looker. But knows her stuff...she said Michael Spinks and Hatton have equal legacies.

Ummm...not that her looks are important when discussing boxing.

Tell the truth, I think Boxing is just a sport that doesn't appeal to women from the violence aspect of it. Probably the most masculine of sports out there. Be like finding a woman that loves war films or something, they are out there, just rare. Not a particularly big fan of women at sport anyway, I can live with tennis and all that, but god, listening to some women talking about football is bad enough, I couldn't bear it if my mum started screaming her nonsense when I was watching boxing!

rowley wrote:I guess we can't then

i did warn ya

Some very insightful comments.

Shame no female posters partook.

I have to agree with the ironing sentiments. I'd also add cooking and hoovering to that list.

My missis always likes to go with me to watch the Froch fights, but i've nipped that in the bud when she ruined the night accusing me of staring at the other women that were there. She always used to stay up with me though when Hatton was in Vegas or when Froch fought Taylor.
Also I have to admit that although I consider myself in reasonable shape, its got to make me look somewhat crabby when compared to a pro boxer and for that reason, and having a lads only occasion, I prefer my missis to devolop her own interests and hobbies.

Froch Taylor wasn't on live tv was it?

"There will be a delayed transmission of the fight on ITV4 at 2030 BST on Sunday, with it repeated later on ITV1.

The contest in Mashantucket will be shown live in America by US broadcaster Showtime.

Froch's promoter Mick Hennessy had previously been in talks with both ITV and Setanta Sports but after weeks of negotiations a deal failed to materialise, with the credit crunch and recession being blamed."

Was on Primetime, but I think online only.

Probably Froch's best fight and I bet only a handful of people saw it live, how sad..

It's funny that women want equality in sports but when start talking about sport in a group the women don't want to know.

Like when they wanted the same pay as the men but for some reason they don't play 5 sets? I wonder why!

HitmanOwl wrote:It's funny that women want equality in sports but when start talking about sport in a group the women don't want to know.

Like when they wanted the same pay as the men but for some reason they don't play 5 sets? I wonder why!

If they want true equality I'm all for it, let's not have mens and womens events at the Olympics, let's just have the 100 metres for athletes and so on.

Let's see how many medals the women get then.

In fact I'll tell you how many they'll get.

None.

Yeah they'll be wanting the vote soon, nip it in the bud I say.

Women embarrass themselves at the boxing... looks at Froch's missus during the Kessler fight. Shameful hooligan.

I went to see the Calzaghe Kessler fight in Cardiff with my ex. She fell asleep around 10 rows from the front during the fight. You might see it on Youtube, between Rounds 4-6... a girl... asleep... during boxing.

Shameful.

Dear god we're an enlightened bunch on here, do some of you find it easier to type before or after you've shaved your palms?

Lighten up Rowley, anyone would think you've got the entire literary works of Germaine Greer at home......the way you go on.....

Always more a Naomi Wolf man myself but each to their own.

Ooops over my head that......can't say I've heard of her but then you're obviously a bit of a connoisseur of feminist writing.