Regardless of whether women should be punching themselves inside the ring, Women's Boxing is a growing sport. If you are really interested in seeing a Girlfight, ESPN2's Friday Night Fights has a Women's Boxing Match about once every four shows. You could also try www.insidewomensboxing.com, an online magazine about the sport.

There are several problems with women's boxing though. Just like in men's boxing the biggest problem is the business aspect of it. You've probably only ever heard of Laila Ali or Mia St. John. Laila's mild stardom comes from the famous father, and Mia has recieved some publicity from being good looking. Not surprisingly, the women of women's boxing are not exactly hot. The ones who are (at least a little) get promoted much better. This is regardless of any actual talent. The problem of talented fighters being ignored is even worse in women's boxing than in men's.

That brings us to the next problem: talent. There really aren't many highly talented female boxers right now. Usually a women's boxing match is more of a Toughman Contest. This is not because women can't box, it's just that there aren't enough female boxers. Any female boxer with real raw talent can only get so far before she is extremely better than any possible opponents. So, at this point her forward progress stops. It also doesn't help that any fight looks bad if one half of it is throwing wild punches and not blocking. Actually getting two talented female boxers in the same ring is a rarity. And then, after they fight their hearts out nobody cares since neither of them would be "stars".

There are only a few minor differences between women's and men's boxing that I know of. The rounds in women's boxing are only 2 minutes long (as opposed to 3) and so far there are usually less rounds. The weight classes are also lower across the board. There's also an additional class of "Mini Flyweight" between "Junior Flyweight" and "Strawweight" for some reason.