LATEST NEWS
Selected for Glasgow film festival
We were selected for Glasgow's World of Film International Festival this year. Having filmed in Edinburgh twice and featured two Scottish champions in the film - Gardner and Stephanie - it's great to know 'Unladylike' will reach Scottish audiences too!
'Unladylike' - the preview
In November 2015 we presented 'Unladylike' to an audience of family, friends and boxing folk for an exclusive preview. The screening was followed by a discussion on the future of women's boxing, hosted by comedian Athena Kugblenu; our panel included Lucy O'Connor, former boxing champion, coach Lenny Hagland, and teacher and girls' sport advocate Stephanie Pride.
Multitasking mum
Debbie Tyrell (above), introduced us to her daughter Paris, who's already following in mum's footsteps. Debbie's dedication is impressive - she somehow juggles being a single mum, two jobs - and a gruelling training regime that sees her in the gym almost every day.
After travelling to Edinburgh to meet Scotland's top women boxers, we caught up with them at the Box Cup at London's Alexandra Palace - one of Europe's largest amateur boxing tournaments. Stephanie, above, took home gold in the women's 54kg.
Miranda Carter invited us into her North London home from where she also runs Left Jab Promotions. She told us how her father inspired her to get involved in promoting and managing boxers, and explained why she loves the drama of boxing.
"There are moments when it's as if time is suspended. There's something primeval about it, in the same way there's something primeval about opera."
"It's just like opera"
Un-lassie-like
On bitches and babes
"What gave me more drive to succeed in boxing was actually all the sexism," reckons Cathy Brown, the second British female boxer ever to turn pro, who spoke to us from the Soho gym where she now works.
Even after being awarded a professional license, she still faced discrimination, with little interest from sponsors and promoters usually unwilling to take on women. She refused to take no for an answer though - and decided to work those old-school prejudices to her advantage.
By her own admission, Cathy became a "media whore", posing "all oiled up" in photo shoots and calling herself "The Bitch", to attract the public attention she needed to win sponsorship. She paid her male peers to spar with her,begged friends to buy tickets to her fights, and covered the costs of flying opponents to England to get the fights she needed.
All of that while finding a way to "stay feminine" as a top-ranked fighter in one of the toughest sports there is.
Boxing Hour (or two) with Bunce
If anyone knows boxing, it’s Steve Bunce. The ‘voice of British boxing’ has been covering the sport since 1985. He’s been to five Olympic Games. And he hosts the weekly Boxing Hour show on the dedicated BoxNation channel, grilling worldwide legends – from Amir Khan to Mike Tyson - on his couch.
For Unladylike, we turned the cameras back on Buncey himself, who told us why he’s so angry about the limited weight categories for women boxers (“Who in their right mind would ask teenagers to lose or gain up to two stone?”), why Nicola Adams is so important (“She’s changed everything for women boxers – and for female athletes”) and why women will one day be knocking each other out (“Power is not about how big you are or how many weights you can lift”).
And what would get women’s boxing into the mainstream? For Steve, it’s a no-brainer: “It’s quality. People will go out to watch boxing if it's quality, whether they’re male or female or from Mars. It’s that simple.”
'Some people just HAVE to fight'
Story Spider was behind the scenes at October’s ‘Night of Champions’ at York Hall – where we heard more about the professional boxing scene.
Dave Murphy, the promoter behind the Night of Champions – which saw the first female world title fight in London – is a huge supporter of women’s boxing. For the simple reason, he says, that “some people just have to fight”, and whether that person is a man or a woman, they should be given the opportunity.
“Women have been fighting a long, long time… you go back 100 years and see who was fighting – it was the fishermen’s wives and dockers’ wives having bare-knuckle fights out in places like this … now that, to me, is unsafe – so why not regulate it properly, same as everybody else?”
A full report of the Night of Champions is available here
Stay tuned for news of the film's general release - in the meantime, you can watch the trailer here.
We've been nominated!
'Unladylike' is up for an award (best documentary) at Crystal Palace International Film Festival, apparently "London's coolest film festival". We're chuffed! Our film will be screened along with two other short documentaries on Tues 15th Nov - for details and the full programme see www.cpiff.co.uk.
Barbara, 86, stands alongside boxing’s greatest
Watch Barbara tell her own story in this short clip above (produced by Alex Jopson and Yana Nesterova)
Thumbing through her scrapbook, Barbara Buttrick, 86, reminisces about her days as a boxer. Household names pass through her lips casually, as if there’s nothing unusual about being honoured in the Boxing Hall of Fame alongside Mohammed Ali and Don King. In her photos we see her tiny frame standing alongside the great heavyweights, Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson.
In the 1940s, Barbara was unlike other young ladies in Hull. Her bedroom wall was plastered with pictures of boxing champions, although she was more interested in starting a girls’ football team. A twist of fate led her upon the newspaper story of “Polly the Champ” - and, realising that boxing didn’t need 11 other girls, Barbara decided to give it a go. The rest, as they say, is history!
Today Barbara lives in Miami. She is the founder and chair of the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF), and played a key role in campaigning for the inclusion of women’s boxing in the Olympic games. “I was in London and before each of the shows with the girls", she says, "I would speak for a few minutes about the way things were when I started out”.
Jane Couch: reluctant pioneer
“The owner of the gym said: ‘You can't come in... you're not allowed”. That was Jane Couch’s first day in a boxing gym, she told us when we met her in Bristol last week. He was right, of course: women’s boxing was illegal in the UK then.
“They were laughing at me, saying, ‘girls don't box’ - I said: ‘No, I saw it on the telly last night!”
Triggered by that chance TV programme, Jane Couch swiftly rose to become a world champion professional boxer. But it was a battle, one that involved a high profile court case – ultimately overturning the law – and numerous uncomfortable media appearances. Jane might have earned an MBE and the respect of the industry, by now – but it wasn’t always so.
Back then, while Jane’s American and European peers were drawing the crowds, the UK media was dismissing it as a freakshow, the press were clamouring outside her Mum’s house – “you’d think I’d murdered someone”, remembers Jane.
Getting Girls Sweaty
Just 12% of 14 year-old girls are active enough to benefit their health; by 16, girls are half as likely to meet recommended activity levels as boys are.
These are some of the “really worrying” stats the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation is working to change, as their policy chief Tim Woodhouse told us.
There’s a whole host of reasons for girls to give up sport. Over half of those questioned in a WSFF study said school P.E. puts them off; some are influenced by their non-sporty friends; even parents can stand in the way. And 48% of girls agree that getting sweaty is not feminine.
This all means that there are not enough girls playing at competitive level in their late teens and early twenties, which in turn means too few women at elite levels, which doesn’t bode well for media interest, which contributes to scarcity both of role models and of sponsorship, which means inadequate funds for the coaches and facilities etc. needed to develop the sport, which means… you get the picture.
Breaking that cycle requires work on many levels. But there was one aspect that Tim repeatedly emphasised: the need for something, or someone, to aspire to. Unlike their male peers, for talented girls “there is no clear career path”, he told us. “The need for national role models – the likes of Nicola Adams winning gold – cannot be underestimated”.
A hug and a kiss - and a few punches
Meet Lucy O'Connor: five times national champion, first ever female European gold medallist, and ranked in the top 5 in the world in three different weight categories. And did we mention she didn't put on a pair of gloves till she was 27?
An officer in the Navy, she's well used to male surroundings, but what was it like being one of the pioneers of women's boxing?
"I've had support all the way through from the military side of things", says Lucy. "The issues came outside of the service, when I first wanted to box on the civilian side."
Attitudes have evolved in recent years, and now men's and women's teams train together and travel together to compete. Are there differences in how they approach the sport?
"When we meet the other teams, all the girls go across and give the other team a bit of a hug and kiss, say nice to meet you, see you in the ring... The men just growl at each other!"
Ultimately though, boxing is a "leveller", says the former champion."It doesn’t matter if your're from a deprived background or a public school. When you're in the ring, that makes not a blind bit of difference. You're pitted against each other - and yourself, actually. Leave your background at the door..."
"No dream is too big - make it happen!"
We've been talking to some inspirational boxers. Cherrelle Brown, National ABA Title winnner and currently undefeated, has huge ambitions. And she knows what it'll take to get there: "It's pretty much down to who's got the most heart, and who wants it more."
Anthony Joshua - "So many beastly men!"
Superheavyweight gold medallist Anthony Joshua chatted with us about his admiration for women boxers. "Obviously, it's a predominantly men's sport. So for a woman to stand amongst so many beastly men, she's got the power to do anything!"
Never too young
She's just 8 years old, and already sparring with the boys! We spent an afternoon with little Lucy and her mum, talking boxing, dolls, and One Direction. Who's her favourite? Watch the teaser to find out...