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TOP HONORS OF PAST
WOMEN BOXERS
WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE
SPORT.....These
women are the warriors for the cause of women boxing. They put themselves on the
line to challenge the system to obtain equal rights for not only themselves, but for all
other women boxers, amateur and professional. Some may not have become the Top
of the Rank fighter, but what they accomplished was much more. They fought for
the rights of other women.
PAT PINEDA
FIRST WOMAN TO GET A BOXING LICENSE IN CALIFORNIA
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Pat Pineda challenged the State of California in the
mid 70's to obtain a boxing
license. She was the first woman to get a boxing license in California.
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SHIRLEY "ZEBRA
GIRL" TUCKER
CHALLENGED CALIFORNIA OVER LENGTHENING THE ROUNDS
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"ZEBRA GIRL" TUCKER
1979 - Backed by the American Civil Liberties
Union, Tucker forced the California Commission to change their
regulations which forbade female fighters from engaging in more than
four-round bouts. |
The
Commission was KO’d by a legality brought on by the American Civil
Liberties Union.Reference to Historical
data: Boxing Illustrated April 1979, "Shirley (Zebra
Girl) Tucker The girl who kayoed a commission, by Mary-Ann Noble.
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Lady Tyger Trimiar |
Cathy "Cat" Davis - Lady
Tyger Trimiar - Jackie Tonawanda
October 1977 - The New York
Supreme Court, Justice Nathaniel T. Helman rules that the New York State Athletic
Commissions rule against women’s boxing is unconstitutional, violating equal
protection |
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Cathy "Cat" Davis |
clauses of Federal
and State Constitutions. The ruling was in response to the lawsuit
that Cathy "CAT" Davis had pursued against the Commission The Judge
did rule that CAT had only applied to fight other women. He directed
the commission to promulgate new rules for licensing women boxers,
and that they were to do that in reasonable time frame.
Reference to Historical data:
Boxing Illustrated 78, and New York Times 1978. |
Jill Lafler Fights to fight
in Amateurs - 1982
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MAY 1982 - A federal judge in Michigan refused to allow nineteen-year-old Jill Lafler to
compete in the Golden Gloves, Jill, a student at Lansing Community College, who has been
working out with the men's boxing team, had tried to register last month for the gloves
but was turned down. |
She appealed and Ingham County Circuit judge Raymond Hotchkiiss ruled that
she could fight, but his ruling was over turned by Federal judge Wendell Miles, who
issued an eight page opinion. Judge Hotchkiss's ruling had suspended the competition
in the flyweight class until Miss Lafler's case could be heard. Judge Miles said the
difference between male and female anatomies made it unrealistic to believe that women
could enter the sport of boxing and operate under the same rules with no detrimental
effects on the safety of the participants. He also said that she failed to
prove that she would probably be successful or that she would suffer irreparable harm if
she could not fight. Miles also said Lafler could not ensure that her participation would
not hurt the tournament and could not prove "the public interest would be
served" by her fighting. The judge said he could find no evidence of sex
discrimination and said a separate tournament could be set up for women to box women. Miss Lafler was, as she put it,
"zombied out: when she heard his decision. "Just for a minute, I lost it, I
though for sure I was going to win." She is unsure as to her future, as there
are no other women amateur boxers in Michigan. She had fought and defeated a
fourteen-year-old boy in her only previous bout. BOXING ILLUSTRATED "SEX
DISCRIMINATION" - AMATEUR BOXING, Page 56,
Women's page , May 1982
Gail Grandchamp Makes History
in Massachusetts
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On April 16, 1992, after a ten-year battle
in court in Massachusetts, Gail Grandchamp of North Adams,
Massachusetts won her battle to fight as a woman in a ruling by a
state Superior Court judge who ruled that a woman boxer was
illegally barred from the ring, because of her sex.
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During her battle to win the right
to box as an amateur, she passed the age of 36 , the maximum age for amateur
fighters. Knowing this, she continued to appear in court to obtain the
right for other women and won.
Dallas Malloy Paves the way for Amateurs
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October 1993 - Dallas Malloy, 16, went to court and
won the right to compete in the Amateurs. She won the right to compete in the first
sanctioned bout by USA Boxing, the governing body of Olympic-style boxing in the United
States.
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