“Last week’s 5 Live Boxing podcast from the BBC featured a guest appearance from Ellie Scotney, the current IBF, WBO and Ring Magazine super-bantamweight world champion.
In recent years, women fighters have appeared with increasing regularity across the BBC and other leading media outlets, as well as on major fight cards in the UK and overseas.
Talking to BBC’s resident boxing doyen Steve Bunce, Scotney was in a chipper mood, despite having her title defence against New Zealand’s Mea Motu on the recent Jack Catterall-Regis Prograis bill in Manchester postponed due to an untimely calf injury.
The 26-year-old east Londoner remains hopeful of a ring return in the next few months, for what would be just her second contest of 2024. To my surprise, this type of scheduling is becoming endemic to the female fight game, with many of Britain and Ireland’s leading names boxing infrequently, if at all, in the past 12 months.
But while fight dates have dried up, for the time being at least, the production line of talent has not. In conversation with Scotney, Bunce referenced the huge numbers of young women currently turning professional in a sport that not so long ago was struggling for legality, let alone credibility.
And closer to home the burgeoning numbers in our women-only sessions, not to mention the recent exploits of our own cohort of amateur fighters, underline that at grass-roots level the sport is going from strength to strength.
At last week’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants film premiere, I was inspired by hearing former Fight for Peace member and current coach Athena talk so eloquently about her journey, the challenges she faced and how she overcame them.
Athena is a remarkable young woman. A role model and inspiration to many people through her accomplishments in and out of the ring, she is an illustration of what can be achieved when talent and hard-work collide in the right setting.
The initial steps into male-dominated sports such as boxing, MMA and muay thai can be the most daunting. However, it is apparent that the inclusive atmosphere created by the members, coaches and staff at our Academy is making that initial barrier to entry far easier to overcome in this particular corner of North Woolwich.
Currently there are 50 women attending our female-only sessions each month and an increasing number of members pulling on the vest and competing in amateur shows around the south east. Having listened to former and current members talk about their overwhelmingly positive experiences here, these numbers come as no surprise.
“As a female, what I can say from my personal experience, I don’t feel any different from how the coaches treat us as women,” Asmaa, one of our amateur competitors, said recently.
“If anything, they push us not only to our ability, based on us being women, but at the same level as all the other competitors in the boxing team, and I think no one really sees us as ‘the women boxers’, but as a team, which I’ll always be grateful for in Fight for Peace.”
By offering the platform and support network necessary to compete, train, learn and develop – in and out of the ring – our Academy has become a truly special space, welcoming to all.
“We believe in a society without exclusion. Everybody is welcome at Fight for Peace.”
These are the words written alongside the first of the five Pillars, ‘Embracing’, on our website, and it is something that is immediately apparent upon walking through the Academy’s doors.
Whether it be women’s boxing, inclusivity training or tailored special educational needs and disability sessions, we are on a mission to empower a diverse range of young people to succeed in sport and beyond. Thanks to the inspiring members in our midst and the dedication of the community supporting them, I am proud to say we are succeeding on this mission.”
