It has been announced yesterday that female boxing will be included in the 2012 olympics programme and i for one, am pleased with this. It has been an uphill struggle for budding young female boxers to earn respect for what they do because of their gender, where contrastly male boxers don’t even provoke a raised eyebrow when they want to get into the sport. .

Boxer Amir Khan has stated on afew occasions that he doesn’t think women should fight because it seemed, to him anyway, a ‘cruel thing to do’. I am of the opinion that when a girl wants to box she knows of the dangers and the rewards and therefore they don’t go into the sport with their eyes closed. Therefore i think it is pretty condescending to say it is ‘unfair’ or cruel to put women in a ring to box, if those ladies are there because its a passion of theirs.

Whenever a female enters into a male dominated sport they face problems.

I feel the women want peoples respect and not sympathy so the way no one feels sorry for a male boxer when they are in a fight and losing i feel the girls too want people to respect them and watch them regardless whether they win or lose. There will no doubt be people who think it is disturbing to watch two girls knock seven bells out of each other, hence why it has taken so long for female boxing to seriously take off but the fact it has now made it to the olympic stage should lead more people, the nay sayers in the past, to ultimately support the ladies more.

In an age which often talks about there being ‘less sex discrimination’ than in the past, this is a positive step forward i think.

What are your views on the inclusion of female boxing to the 2012 olympics? Do you support it or oppose it and why?

Cheers in advance!!

Dave
UK