Womens boxing at 2012 olympics announced!!

[Ash-Weston]

Its official according to the Boxrec home page. Ive never actually bothered to watch a womens fight so itll be interesting.

Discuss

[Wales]

No offence, but im really not interested. Bit like womens football, if it was on in my back garden, I'd close the curtains.

[hitman09]

Excellent. Katie Taylor is one gold medal for Ireland at least. It's a guaranteed improvement on Beijing already!

[Smigga]

Tasha Jonas will be odds on favourite for Gold. She can FIGHT..... Good Luck mate

[JMac]

Excellent. Katie Taylor is one gold medal for Ireland at least. It's a guaranteed improvement on Beijing already!

Egan was robbed in Beijing.

As for the women:
Women will compete at three weights in London - flyweight (48 - 51kg), lightweight (56 - 60kg) and middleweight (69 - 75kg) - with 12 boxers taking part at each weight. In order for the total number of boxers to remain at 286 there will be one less weight category in the men's competition, meaning that there will be 10 weights for men.

I'm happy for the women but not happy that the men lose a weight class.

[jamesmcdonnell]

This is excellent news. It's been a long time coming.

The women's professional sport will improve no end at an exponential rate as a result of this too.

[BARNEYKX]

Irish banker 60 wins from 61 fights ,sure gold for Ireland Katie Taylor

[alexpaterson]

I dont really mind 1 way or another but good luck to them

[Coco]

It's an embarassment really, esp as the men lose a weight class, doing this helps legitimise it as a sport, at least with beach volleyball the girls look good.
More meddling by champagne socialists who think it is another equality battle

[Coco]

Whats the betting that the girl from big brother will get in the team

[jBacca]

Whats the betting that the girl from big brother will get in the team

I hope not. That fight she was in recently was absolutely shocking.

[stujones]

I haven't seen enough of the amateur's too judge.... I hope it hasn't come to soon, I hope the standard will be good.

[BARNEYKX]

I WONDER IF THE CUBANS WILL HAVE A TEAM READY FOR LONDON

[hitman_hatton1]

No offence, but im really not interested. Bit like womens football, if it was on in my back garden, I'd close the curtains.

a bit like women's football in that they just aren't very good to watch are they.

lucia rijker was a class act though.

love to put DG in the ring with that brutal bitch.

[Coco]

Just because there are a few decent fighters around in the pro's is no reason to put the sport in the Olympics at this stage, esp when it means a division is taken away from the mens sport. Don't fool yourself the general standard is awful.

[crusader]

Just because there are a few decent fighters around in the pro's is no reason to put the sport in the Olympics at this stage, esp when it means a division is taken away from the mens sport. Don't fool yourself the general standard is awful.

That is a huge under statement.

I have sparred with a world class female amateur who had competed in the World Championships on multiple occasions and it was like a walk in the park and I only had 11 amateur fights. I gave her a bloody nose and was told to lighten up by my trainer. Womens boxing is absolutely terrible with the very rare exception of someone like Kate Taylor. Mens amateur boxing is not only filled with far more talent and more entertaining, but it has enough problems that need to be sorted out before adding women to the Olympic picture.

[damianhucker1]

Whats the betting that the girl from big brother will get in the team

well shes pro so she wont be able to will she .?

[jamesmcdonnell]

boulder fisted bull dykes knocking ten bells out of each other oooh cant wait.

What an ignorant statement.

[jamesmcdonnell]

It's an embarassment really, esp as the men lose a weight class, doing this helps legitimise it as a sport, at least with beach volleyball the girls look good.
More meddling by champagne socialists who think it is another equality battle

Utter bollocks, it's nothing to do with 'champagne socialism' Women have been fighting in wars in centuries, and women's boxing has a very long history, there's nothing new about it. Women have been participating in kickboxing for donkeys.

Do some research, and you'll see that you are talking shite.

Why on earth shouldn't women box, so long as they aren't fighting against men, what's the big deal?

Sure, the standard is poor now, but that's because of a lack of depth of talent, this will change once olympic participation kicks in.

What i don't understand is why the men have to lose a weight category - that's piss poor administration.

[Wales]

Sure, the standard is poor now, but that's because of a lack of depth of talent, this will change once olympic participation kicks in.

What i don't understand is why the men have to lose a weight category - that's piss poor administration.

I disagree that the depth of talent will change just because of olympic involvment. How many women / girls are going to trawl through the red button on bbc one / three to find the one of the three catgories of fights and then take up the sport on the back of it. Its bloody hard enough for me to keep up with olympic boxing, and im a die hard fan who's on here every day with people telling me where to find the fights and when they're on. I still struggle.

Like Is aid ina previous post, im not interested. Happy for them to have it, but its a poor sub-standard of our wonderful <ahem - at times> sport

[jamesmcdonnell]

Sure, the standard is poor now, but that's because of a lack of depth of talent, this will change once olympic participation kicks in.

What i don't understand is why the men have to lose a weight category - that's piss poor administration.

I disagree that the depth of talent will change just because of olympic involvment. How many women / girls are going to trawl through the red button on bbc one / three to find the one of the three catgories of fights and then take up the sport on the back of it. Its bloody hard enough for me to keep up with olympic boxing, and im a die hard fan who's on here every day with people telling me where to find the fights and when they're on. I still struggle.

Like Is aid ina previous post, im not interested. Happy for them to have it, but its a poor sub-standard of our wonderful <ahem - at times> sport

Well, that's fine, nobody is forcing anyone to watch it.

the fact is, for young sportswomen, there will now be an additional olympic sport for them to compete in. Boxing is a minority sport, and will be so for women competitors too, but having the option to compete at the olympics will give those who are thinking about which sport they are going to participate in one more reason to choose boxing.

[banjo]

I gave up on the Olympics when they started sanctioning greasy teenager sports like BMX biking, womens boxing is way more respectable than that crap.

[Coco]

It's an embarassment really, esp as the men lose a weight class, doing this helps legitimise it as a sport, at least with beach volleyball the girls look good.
More meddling by champagne socialists who think it is another equality battle

Utter bollocks, it's nothing to do with 'champagne socialism' Women have been fighting in wars in centuries, and women's boxing has a very long history, there's nothing new about it. Women have been participating in kickboxing for donkeys.

Do some research, and you'll see that you are talking shite.

Why on earth shouldn't women box, so long as they aren't fighting against men, what's the big deal?

Sure, the standard is poor now, but that's because of a lack of depth of talent, this will change once olympic participation kicks in.

What i don't understand is why the men have to lose a weight category - that's piss poor administration.

We live in a free society so if women want to embarass themselves in this way, all power to them!
My main gripe is that it takes a weight class away from the mens sport.
Olympic participation won't do the sport any favours, the only exposure it will have is if some aged ex porn star gives it a go, it will only serve to trivialise the sport.
I am a firm believer that certain standards have to be achieved to compete in the Olympics, otherwise it just laughs in the face of serious athletes. There will be British four nations champions deemed not worthy of an Olympic spot next time around.

And if the sport has this long history you speak about, are they ever going to get any better??

[Wales]

Well, that's fine, nobody is forcing anyone to watch it.

the fact is, for young sportswomen, there will now be an additional olympic sport for them to compete in. Boxing is a minority sport, and will be so for women competitors too, but having the option to compete at the olympics will give those who are thinking about which sport they are going to participate in one more reason to choose boxing.

Indeed. I couldnt find it even if i did want to watch it. Press red, roll a six, go round the board once, stand on one leg and sing the chicken song. Bingo. Some khazakstan lightweight against a kenyan. 6-4. Now, back to the badminton.

I dont think a young sportswoman would think "I'll try boxing" over a thousand sports just because it has 3 weights in the olympics, also there must be a hundread sports in the olympics already. So a young sportswoman would be highly unlikely to think "oooo, i'll go for boxing, I could win a medal".

Then again, it wont reduce the ammount of women taking part. Unless they see the state of the ones in the sport and think "sod that"

Sorry, just being nasty now.

[jamesmcdonnell]

It's an embarassment really, esp as the men lose a weight class, doing this helps legitimise it as a sport, at least with beach volleyball the girls look good.
More meddling by champagne socialists who think it is another equality battle

Utter bollocks, it's nothing to do with 'champagne socialism' Women have been fighting in wars in centuries, and women's boxing has a very long history, there's nothing new about it. Women have been participating in kickboxing for donkeys.

Do some research, and you'll see that you are talking shite.

Why on earth shouldn't women box, so long as they aren't fighting against men, what's the big deal?

Sure, the standard is poor now, but that's because of a lack of depth of talent, this will change once olympic participation kicks in.

What i don't understand is why the men have to lose a weight category - that's piss poor administration.

We live in a free society so if women want to embarass themselves in this way, all power to them!
My main gripe is that it takes a weight class away from the mens sport.
Olympic participation won't do the sport any favours, the only exposure it will have is if some aged ex porn star gives it a go, it will only serve to trivialise the sport.
I am a firm believer that certain standards have to be achieved to compete in the Olympics, otherwise it just laughs in the face of serious athletes. There will be British four nations champions deemed not worthy of an Olympic spot next time around.

And if the sport has this long history you speak about, are they ever going to get any better??

Women's boxing never got legitimised the way men's did. They used to have women's MMA style tournaments as far back as the 17th century, but these were illegal bouts.

Of course people are going to always favour men competing in any sport over women, men are stronger, fitter, more resilient etc, and are therefore always going to be better than women, however, that doesn't mean there is no skills in women's versions of the sport.