Nicola Adams Joins Taylor, Shields as New Faces of Women's Boxing
Nicola Adams Joins Taylor, Shields as New Faces of Women's Boxing
Olympic gold medalist Nicola Adams is poised to become one of the faces of women's boxing.
The rumors swirled for weeks before it became official that Nicola Adams, a two-time women’s flyweight Olympic gold medallist, had signed with Frank Warren and would debut in April at the Manchester Arena.
She’ll join Ireland’s Katie Taylor and the United States’ Claressa Shields as 2016 female Olympic boxers who have turned pro in hopes of making a career at the sweet science.
All three women are looking to carve out new territory in a sport that has been intensely male dominated since its inception. For decades, female boxers have struggled to gain notoriety in the boxing world.
HBO, generally regarded as the home of most major bouts in boxing, has never shown a female boxing match. Showtime hasn’t shown one since 2001.
It’s a Catch 22, of sorts: women’s boxing needs the major boxing television slots to gain notoriety, but they need the notoriety to warrant the major boxing television slot. Most boxing fans could not name more than a handful of female boxers, and even fewer keep track of the sport on a regular basis.
In a feature story on Shields for the New York Times, Jaime Lowe wrote “Shields cannot visibly enjoy fighting to succeed financially as a boxer. It’s a violent sport. If she were a man, that bloodlust, that taste for combat, would be courted. It would be used as a selling point to hype fights, as it always has.”
Aug 20, 2016; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sarah Ourahmoune (FRA), blue, and Nicola Adams (GBR) compete in a women's flyweight boxing event during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Riocentro - Pavilion 6. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
She’s right: the boxing world has no idea how to market a female fighter; they’ve never done it properly.
Thankfully, there is now a model to follow. While Showtime hasn’t shown a women’s boxing match since 2001, they were a leader in showing that women’s mixed martial arts bouts could prosper on a significant combat sports platform.
Ronda Rousey’s explosion as a mainstream icon is the obvious example to follow: prominent mixed martial arts promotions the UFC and Strikeforce both marketed Rousey as a bad ass, take no prisoners fighter who was there to break limbs and chew bubblegum, and she was all out of bubblegum.
Rousey became arguably the most popular fighter that mixed martial arts has ever seen and unquestionably the most visible female fighter, boxing or mixed martial arts, to ever step onto a fighting surface.
Even before Rousey, Showtime had committed to shows headlined by female fighters such as Gina Carano, Cris “Cyborg” Justino, Marloes Coenen and Meisha Tate.
With the rise of Rousey, boxing promoters around the world finally appear ready to give women’s boxing another chance, and not a moment too soon.
Shields has all the potential to ignite a women’s boxing craze in the United States. She has a fan-friendly fighting style and the same ruthless personality that made Rousey a superstar. At 21, she has plenty of time to properly mature as a professional fighter and dominate the sport for years to come.
Taylor, 30, is a veteran of the amateur scene who is already well known in her home country of Ireland. Through two professional bouts, she has looked to make the transition flawlessly.
And then we get to Adams.
The first LGBT community member to win an Olympic gold medal, Adams was named the most influential LGBT member person in Britain in 2012 by The Independent. She was also a 2012 nominee for BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. Adam could single-handedly turn women around the world onto the sport of boxing in the coming years if she can mirror her amateur success into the pro ranks.
With a model laid down by Ronda Rousey and the promotion that made her a star, the future of women’s boxing has never looked brighter.
By Shawn Smith/FloBoxing
She’ll join Ireland’s Katie Taylor and the United States’ Claressa Shields as 2016 female Olympic boxers who have turned pro in hopes of making a career at the sweet science.
All three women are looking to carve out new territory in a sport that has been intensely male dominated since its inception. For decades, female boxers have struggled to gain notoriety in the boxing world.
HBO, generally regarded as the home of most major bouts in boxing, has never shown a female boxing match. Showtime hasn’t shown one since 2001.
It’s a Catch 22, of sorts: women’s boxing needs the major boxing television slots to gain notoriety, but they need the notoriety to warrant the major boxing television slot. Most boxing fans could not name more than a handful of female boxers, and even fewer keep track of the sport on a regular basis.
In a feature story on Shields for the New York Times, Jaime Lowe wrote “Shields cannot visibly enjoy fighting to succeed financially as a boxer. It’s a violent sport. If she were a man, that bloodlust, that taste for combat, would be courted. It would be used as a selling point to hype fights, as it always has.”
Aug 20, 2016; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sarah Ourahmoune (FRA), blue, and Nicola Adams (GBR) compete in a women's flyweight boxing event during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Riocentro - Pavilion 6. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
She’s right: the boxing world has no idea how to market a female fighter; they’ve never done it properly.
Thankfully, there is now a model to follow. While Showtime hasn’t shown a women’s boxing match since 2001, they were a leader in showing that women’s mixed martial arts bouts could prosper on a significant combat sports platform.
Ronda Rousey’s explosion as a mainstream icon is the obvious example to follow: prominent mixed martial arts promotions the UFC and Strikeforce both marketed Rousey as a bad ass, take no prisoners fighter who was there to break limbs and chew bubblegum, and she was all out of bubblegum.
Rousey became arguably the most popular fighter that mixed martial arts has ever seen and unquestionably the most visible female fighter, boxing or mixed martial arts, to ever step onto a fighting surface.
Even before Rousey, Showtime had committed to shows headlined by female fighters such as Gina Carano, Cris “Cyborg” Justino, Marloes Coenen and Meisha Tate.
With the rise of Rousey, boxing promoters around the world finally appear ready to give women’s boxing another chance, and not a moment too soon.
Shields has all the potential to ignite a women’s boxing craze in the United States. She has a fan-friendly fighting style and the same ruthless personality that made Rousey a superstar. At 21, she has plenty of time to properly mature as a professional fighter and dominate the sport for years to come.
Taylor, 30, is a veteran of the amateur scene who is already well known in her home country of Ireland. Through two professional bouts, she has looked to make the transition flawlessly.
And then we get to Adams.
The first LGBT community member to win an Olympic gold medal, Adams was named the most influential LGBT member person in Britain in 2012 by The Independent. She was also a 2012 nominee for BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. Adam could single-handedly turn women around the world onto the sport of boxing in the coming years if she can mirror her amateur success into the pro ranks.
With a model laid down by Ronda Rousey and the promotion that made her a star, the future of women’s boxing has never looked brighter.
By Shawn Smith/FloBoxing