Doctors Debate Risks For Fighters But Supporters Of Women’s Boxing Say Concerns Only Mask Biases Against Females In Sport

Breast protectors in place, the boxers let fly, bloodying their opponents with the vengeance of their male counterparts. But at what cost?

Four years after Seattle teenager Dallas Malloy won a court battle allowing her to fight alongside men, the risks for hundreds of women who followed remain a mystery, according to doctors at boxing’s first medical conference.

“The case histories just aren’t there,” said Virginia orthopedic surgeon Joseph Estwanic, whose recent book “Sports Medicine for the Combat Arts” may be the first medical text to address female boxing.

After consulting dozens of medical experts throughout the United States, Estwanic concluded there were “no major red flags” signaling the sport posed greater health risks to women.

But he cautioned, “The hard research has yet to be done.” He said, for example, that women’s bone structure is more fragile than men’s.

Most of the medical experts from 83 countries said they had never seen a female fight. Supporters of women’s boxing charged medical concerns masked sexism, while doctors snickered at breast protectors displayed at the four-day conference, sponsored by the World Boxing Council and ending today on this Dutch Caribbean island.

The number of women taking to the ring is soaring, particularly in the United States, Europe and Australia. Mexico already has two world champions among its 30 women fighters.

The sport’s main promoter, the Miami-based Women’s International Boxing Federation, boasts about 1,000 members worldwide, said general secretary Jimmy Flynn.

Unlike male boxers, who come from largely humble backgrounds, Flynn said most of the women are educated professionals who looked to boxing primarily as an exciting hobby. Many come from martial arts disciplines such as kick boxing.

“They’re not in it for the money because, right now, there’s none to be made,” he said.

The federation has sponsored 26 title fights since its founding in 1993, many fought by women with wildly differing abilities and equipment.

Doctors at the conference snickered at the display of conical and rounded breast protectors and brochures of pink-lipsticked women displaying their world title belts and grinning, fists raised.

“You don’t see male boxers trying to look sweet,” one commented.

“I can’t imagine any of these (protectors) would do a damn thing,” said Charles Wilson, medical director of New Jersey’s boxing commission.

He cited concerns ranging from potential breast trauma, undetected pregnancies and damage to women’s wrists and shoulders, which he said were more vulnerable to injury than men’s.

But Wilson said efforts to reduce the risks, such as requiring women to wear breast and groin protectors, could backfire by encouraging female fighters to aim for the head. Some breast protectors cover much of the stomach area, a traditional target for male boxers.

Other veteran ringside doctors warned of the dangers of the inevitable mismatches within a limited pool of women fighters.

One such fight, in Philadelphia, pitted a 5-foot-8, 145-pound novice against a 6-foot-3 165-pound unbeaten Indiana Golden Gloves winner at the U.S. amateur boxing championship.

Kate Seules, the rookie, lost the fight after a blow from Jen Childers shattered her nose.

Malloy, the pioneer, fought her first and only bout under the U.S. Amateur Boxing League flag in 1993. One fight and a bloody nose later, the 16-year-old abandoned the sport for her first hobby, the piano.

“For five years I’ve watched women come in and out of my gym,” said veteran WBC referee Richard Steele. “But to stay six months and prove they want to do it? Nah.”

Some doctors pointed to the dangers of allowing women with little experience to participate in title fights. At least one woman became world champion after her first time in the ring.

The doctors, working to draft recommendations for the sport, said the lack of consistent participation among many women fighters made it hard to gauge the potential risks.

“We don’t have a contagious model siphoning off from boxing clubs nationwide, like we do with men,” Wilson said. “Until we have all the bodies singing from the same sheet music, we’re in trouble.”

Supporters of female boxing argued the medical concerns masked widespread disapproval.

“There’s sexism, homophobia and the threat to the world’s most exclusive men’s club,” Flynn said. “If I brought a group of prostitutes into the ring, I’d be more accepted.”