Top boxers and officials lift the lid on the 'grubby' and 'sexist' women’s professional game in the US, where fighters are exploited, prize money doesn’t even cover the cost of air fares and top fighters must resort to posing in nude mags

America's top boxing officials have delivered a knockout blow to Irish golden girl Katie Taylor’s pro dreams – warning her to think twice before moving to the US to seek her fortune.
Dodgy promoters, badly organised bouts, rotten pay and some controversial stars have given the once-popular professional sport such a bad name that TV executives refuse to air fights.
Katie’s Olympic victory has thrown women’s boxing into the spotlight – something professional promoters plan to cash in on – but an Irish Mail on Sunday investigation reveals that the sport is anything but pretty.
‘Women’s professional boxing is even more unscrupulous than men’s,’ said Don ‘Moose’ Lewis, chairman of the Women’s International Boxing Council. ‘My honest advice to Katie would be, “Don’t do it. Stay where you are. Aim for the next Olympics.”

Tough: Lisa Garland had to pay her first opponent

‘As a gold medal winner, Katie will get sponsorships and endorsements. She can make money in Ireland. She does not want to be scratching around America trying to make a living,’ added the official.
‘People assume boxers make millions. That is true only of the top 1% of men. Your average male boxer earns between $6,000 and $15,000 per fight. A woman is lucky to get $3,000 (less than €2,500) tops.
‘It’s all about money – getting on pay-per-view television. Women are seen as the warm-up act. They fight 10 two-minute rounds, whereas men are considered better value because they go 12 three-minute rounds.
‘It is something we are trying to change but in boxing there’s no such thing as equal pay.
‘Sexism is rife – men want to see pretty girls fighting.’

Violent: Champion Melissa Hernandez admits she is prepared to brawl

After being asked to describe her style as either 'boxer,' 'puncher,' or 'brawler,' Hernández replied, 'All three, probably, depending on what's needed in a particular fight.'

Mr Lewis continued: ‘Laila Ali was big in the late 1990s, which was the heyday of women’s boxing. But you have to ask the question: would anyone have watched an overweight woman fight if her father wasn’t Muhammad Ali?
‘Then you’ve got the pretty girls, who quit to become models or turn up naked on the pages of Playboy and Penthouse. That’s not good for boxing, either.’
Atlanta-based Lewis, who caused an uproar two years ago when he pitched a reality TV idea to set up an all-white American baseball league, claims unscrupulous promoters send women fighters to Mexico and America’s poorer Southern states, where anything goes.  
‘Some states demand the women wear plastic breast and groin guards,’ he said.
‘That leaves just four inches of stomach to hit, you can hear them punching the plastic. That’s no good, so they go straight for the head.
‘Women’s weight often varies by several pounds so they are switched from lightweight to welter­weight. You get some poor little girl being pummelled by someone 10lbs heavier and they don’t stand a chance.
‘There is money to be made from pro boxing but not in America. Europe and the Far East have the big purses. Here, the women are scrabbling around to pay fight fees, air fares and trainers. Sometimes, they are even expected to pay opponents, too. It’s grubby.
‘If Katie decided to go pro in America, it would be a tremendous publicity boost. Maybe, HBO and Showtime TV channels would start showing fights again.

Different: With light gloves and no headguards, Katie would have to learn again from scratch

‘As a promoter, I would take Katie, aged 26, over our 17-year-old Olympic middleweight, Claressa Shields, because Katie is easier on the eye. She is also clean-living and that would do a lot to help boxing’s bad image.
‘To be a success in women’s boxing you need power, grace, beauty and charisma. Katie has all that and she could have a stellar career here in America. But she would struggle.’
Fighting without headguards can also be more brutal, with blood-spattered faces a common feature of fights and ‘brawling’ a common description.
The 2006 Women’s International Boxing Association champion, Puerto Rican Melissa Hernandez, after being asked to describe her style as either ‘boxer, puncher or brawler’, admitted: ‘All three, probably, depending on what’s needed in a particular fight.’
Judy Kulis, president of the International Female Boxers’ Association, also hopes Katie’s victory will persuade TV channels to air fights again.
‘It has not been easy – we really need TV support to get women’s boxing going again,’ she said.
‘For a long time, the television networks would not even talk to us. Finally, one has at least agreed to meet us next week.
‘Men’s boxing isn’t as popular as it was and women’s fights aren’t considered value for money, at just 10 rounds.

Leg-up: Laila Ali, above right, traded on her father Muhammad¿s name

‘If Katie wants to go pro, she should look to Germany or Korea. She would do well in America but she would not make a fortune.
‘Amateur boxing is different. Aside from different scoring, amateurs wear clunky headgear and big, puffy 10oz or 12oz gloves. All that takes away from the passion of the professional sport, which can be compelling. She would have to start all over again.  
‘There are at least a dozen organisations that sanction world fights and have different rankings. Some of them haven’t had much to do with women’s boxing in years, or they change their names and affiliations often. It can be very confusing.’  
George Martinez, of the Toronto-based World Boxing Association, also believes Katie would do better staying in Europe.
‘There’s big money in Germany but nothing in America, where there are a lot of mediocre promoters. They don’t care about the fighters or the conditions. They’re all about getting money for themselves.
‘If Katie wants to go pro in North America, she should choose her promoter very carefully.’
Ireland’s Deirdre Gogarty put women’s boxing on the map in 1996 when she punched American girl Christy Martin’s face to a pulp in the warm-up before the eagerly awaited Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno fight.
Thirty million TV viewers tuned in to watch the women fight – launching the careers of dozens of women boxers and inspiring Hilary Swank’s 2004 Oscar-­winning movie, Million Dollar Baby.

A bloodied Christy Martin of the US celebrates after defeating challenger Andrea DeShong with a seventh round TKO in 1997

Deirdre, now 42 and living in Lafayette, Louisiana, threw in the towel in 2003 after her last seven fights were cancelled – some just hours beforehand. But she hopes Katie can help revamp the sport.
‘Unfortunately, women’s boxing in the US has really been down for quite a few years,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, with the success of the women’s boxing in the Olympics, there ought to be a big resurgence in popularity.
‘Not very many promoters have been putting women on their shows any more. And when they do, they are rarely televised and the money is really poor.
‘Hopefully that is all about to change – much like it did after Christy Martin and I fought. I think Katie has enough fame and talent that she will be able to stay based in Ireland and be placed on high-profile shows over here.
‘If Katie does turn pro, I really hope she gets the money she deserves and that she has a great team around her to take good care of her.”
Like their male counterparts, women boxers have haphazard, brief careers. But Chevelle Hallback – the top-ranked boxer in Katie Taylor’s lightweight division – is at the peak of her career and fighting fit at the age of 40. In contrast, Deirdre’s nemesis Martin, now 44, was repeatedly stabbed and shot by her husband, Jim, two years ago after she told him she was leaving him for a woman.

Holly Holm, 30, is widely regarded as the best female welterweight in the world and one of the best of all time and has posed provocatively in magazines and before fights

He is now serving 25 years in prison for her attempted murder and, even though Martin eventually recovered, her planned comeback ended abruptly when she broke her hand in training. Martin was promoted by Don King and by rights should have earned a fortune but the 80-year-old impresario has been sued by numerous big-name boxers, including Ali, Tyson, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon and Lennox Lewis – all of whom alleged he cheated them out of millions of dollars.
In recent years, boxing has gained such a bad reputation that even big-name promoter Lou DiBella, who pioneered pay-per-view TV on HBO, has little positive to say.
‘The talent in women’s boxing is improving but it’s happened at a time when boxing, as a whole, is in decline,’ he said. ‘Because there’s not any money to be made in it, you just aren’t going to see many women on show.’
Lisa Garland, 34, turned pro in 2007 and is now one of the top 12 ranked women boxers in the world. She’s passionate about the sport but would starve if she had to rely on her winnings to buy groceries, she said.

French boxer Anne Sophie Mathis poses at a private photo shoot on June 10, 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is ranked #1 best female welterweight in the world by WBAN and 2nd in the world by BOXREC

‘I had seven fights last year and I earned in total $6,000,’ she said. ‘Once I got just $500 – less than I spent on air travel – for a belt. I am a world champion but you wouldn’t know it from my bank account.
‘This year, I have had three fights – and they were all in March. You take what you can.
‘You zig-zag across America – most of the fights are in casinos. I love it but it’s a hard life, even though I have made great friends with other fighters outside the ring.
Lisa owns a South Carolina gym with her trainer husband, Adam, earns extra money as a personal fitness trainer and has just got a boxing promoter licence so she can help younger fighters. She also campaigns for equal pay and ­12-round bouts.
‘Women’s boxing is dominated by men; they claim we don’t give value for money by fighting 10 rounds. I am trying to change all that and I hope that Katie and the other Olympic women will do their bit.
‘Boxing isn’t a middle-class sport – I was a troubled kid who kept getting into fights. Then I found a gym and bugged them for two years to let me fight. But there was hardly anyone to spar with.
‘Early on, I had to pay a girl $50 – and promise not to hurt her – just to get her into the ring with me.
‘Boxing gave me a much better life than I expected. I have a university degree now and I am working on a second in sports management. But it has not made me rich. If Katie wants to come to America, she needs to know that.’