Barbara Buttrick (born 3 December 1929), nicknamed "Battling Barbara", is a retired British boxer and a world champion in

women's boxing Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses ...

in the 1940s and 1950s. Originally from England, Buttrick is considered a pioneer of women's professional boxing.

Professional career

Buttrick was born in Cottingham,

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...

, England in 1930. She became a

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typist in an office in the

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. Known as "The Mighty Atom of the Ring", Buttrick, at 4′ 11″, fought from 98 lbs. to being the World's unbeaten flyweight (112) and bantamweight (118) champion from 1950 to 1960. Buttrick started her boxing career in 1948, touring Europe with carnivals as a bantamweight in the boxing booth. She went to the United States in the mid-1950s, joined the carnival circuit, but left because the American carnivals were rougher than the European ones. She then fought professionally in Canada, Chicago, and southern Florida. One of the Canadian matches became the first women's bout to be broadcast on radio. In 1954 she was part of the first boxing match between two women on American national television.🖉 In 1957, she moved to Dallas. She and opponent Phyllis Kugler won the state's first boxing licenses for women, and a world title bout was held in

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. Buttrick won a unanimous decision, making her the first women's world boxing champion. By then, she had fought more than 1,000 exhibitions with men and 18 professional women's fights, only one of which she lost—outweighed by 33 pounds and stricken with the flu. Buttrick allegedly fought many exhibition bouts against male opposition. Buttrick reportedly had one career loss, to Joann Hagen, in 31 pro bouts before retiring in 1960 at 30–1–1. After an absence of 15 years, she briefly returned to the ring in 1977.

Career after boxing

In the mid-1990s, she founded and became the president of the

Women's International Boxing Federation The Women's International Boxing Federation (WIBF) is one of the more recognized world championship fight sanctioning organizations in women's boxing. Founded in March 1989, it is based in Miami, Florida, and presided over by Barbara Buttrick. T ...

(WIBF) which is a major sanctioning body of women's boxing. Buttrick's last known residence was

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, United States.

Honours and legacy

In 2014, Buttrick was inducted into the

International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame The International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF) is a sports hall of fame located in Vancouver, Washington. It is dedicated to women's boxing, and was started by Sue TL Fox and her website Women Boxing Archive Network. The Hall of Fame has ...

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. In 2016, it was announced that a stage play based on Buttrick's life, ''Mighty Atoms'' by Amanda Whittington, would be premiered in Hull as part of the city's

UK City of Culture UK City of Culture is a designation given to a City status in the United Kingdom, city (or a Local government in the United Kingdom, local area from 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bid ...

celebrations in 2017. In 2019, Buttrick became one of the first three women boxers (and the first English woman boxer) elected to the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The ...

; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.

References

External links

*
Short biography of Barbara Buttrick

RingTalk feature story
(archive copy) {{DEFAULTSORT:Buttrick, Barbara 1929 births English women boxers Living people People from Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire Sportspeople from Yorkshire English emigrants to the United States Flyweight boxers Bantamweight boxers