MAYBE AS I have daughters and grand-daughters, or perhaps it’s a generational aberration, but it’s no secret I’m not a lover of women boxing.
Seeing girls in the ring being bruised, battered and bleeding isn’t something I enjoy watching.
Yet Jane Couch — who changed the face of British boxing for ever — has always had my admiration.
The Lancashire lass, known as the Fleetwood Assassin, was a one-woman Suffragette movement — boxing’s equivalent of Emily Pankhurst, who at the beginning of the last century led the fight to get women the vote.
Ms Couch fought tigerishly in her long and bitter legal battle to get the British Boxing Board of Control to lift its ban on women being allowed to box in this country.
She was so passionate and determined in her solo campaign for equal rights she would have gone to jail for her cause — like Pankhurst.
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It was 26 years ago when Jane, now 55, eventually went before a tribunal, backed by the Equal Opportunities Commission, and won her case.
She single-handedly altered the course of history and emancipated dozens of young women who yearned to take part professionally in the Noble Art.
In November 1998 I was ringside at a sold-out Streatham nightclub to report on the BBBofC’s first and only licensed female boxer’s debut — she stopped German Simona ‘Demona’ Lukic in two rounds and a new career was born.
They say pioneers are the ones who create a legacy that lasts beyond their lifetime. Today, the 90 women who hold licences owe Jane a deep debt of gratitude.
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To say Couch was a rough diamond is a giant understatement. In her youth she was Calamity Jane, a tearaway expelled from school and arrested countless times for a variety of offences but mainly for brawling in the street.
Like so many unruly kids Jane found boxing, which taught her discipline and how to be considerate to others.
Next week Jane flies to America where in Canastota, New York, she will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame — the sport’s ultimate tribute and the first British woman to receive that honour.
When we spoke this week, Jane said: “It’s a bit surreal really, I mean Ali and Frazier are in there.
“I had 39 pro fights, won five world titles and received the MBE but I think the Hall of Fame tops it all.
“I was always a rebel — a bit of a warrior and stubborn. I just wanted to make a difference. I think I did that.”
Being inducted alongside her will be two-time world champion Ricky ‘Hitman’ Hatton — arguably Manchester’s favourite son and one of our most exciting fighters ever.
No British fighter had a bigger following than Ricky. Thousands of his fans were at the five fights he had in Las Vegas — and nobody deserves to be in the HOF more.
An elated Ricky said: “It’s jaw-dropping. When it had sunk in, I was a bit teary-eyed — it’s something really special.”
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To have two of our boxers being inducted into the HOF at the same time is unique.
But with Couch and Hatton, Britain couldn’t have finer ambassadors to represent the home of boxing.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
