Fighting for females
It’s no secret that female boxing is on the up and up. It has been fantastic to see women and girls take up the sport and progress in the boxing community over recent years.
Figures like Lauren Price and Rosie Eccles are the role models that aspiring boxers look up to, but it’s also important to recognise the vital work that happens across the amateur boxing community which offers women and girls this opportunity.
Stallion ABC is one club that is doing its utmost to provide these opportunities, having introduced female-only sessions for the past few months.
Speaking to Welsh Boxing, Stallion ABC gym owner and head coach Angelo Dragone explained that “when you look around all the amateur boxing gyms, there are one, two, or maybe three women in each; they aren’t around in large numbers really.
“So,” he continued, “I basically came up with the idea of getting everybody under one roof on a sparring day once a month or every six weeks.”
It’s been wonderful to see that there is such demand for boxing from girls, as Angelo’s idea has borne fruit.
“For the first session we had 15 or 16 girls, and for the second we had about 25 come down. Since then, it’s just grown and grown and grown!
“Not only that,” he went on, “it’s also just made other clubs aware that there are other females out there for sparring. We’ve even had coaches set up bouts between the girls through the group, after they’d sparred with each other and were able to find others in the same weight categories!”
It’s so vital that everyone feels welcome in the boxing community and has the chance to get involved in an environment in which they feel safe.
“It’s just opened doors, really,” Angelo said of his project, “and opened opportunities for female boxers. It’s really benefitted the female boxing community and improved the quality and confidence of fighters.”
Welsh Boxing is thrilled to see this sort of engagement and positivity around female boxing, and it only promises great things for the future, as Angelo outlined.
“We’re seeing women’s boxing getting busier and bigger each year,” he commented.
“I know I set this whole idea up, but I was still gobsmacked to see just how many women and girls came and took part!
“I think the women’s side of the sport is just going to grow and grow, and we’re now looking to set up female-only skills days with the group or a female-only boxing show, which would be great to do in the future.
“It’s important, and it’s been great to simply provide that opportunity for female boxers,” Angelo concluded. “It’s been a successful project of mine and long may it continue!”
