Barbara Buttrick (born 3 December 1929[1]), nicknamed "Battling Barbara", is a retired British boxer and a world champion in women's boxing in the 1940s and 1950s.
Originally from England, Buttrick is considered a pioneer of women's professional boxing.
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.[5]
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.[6][7]
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 San Antonio. 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.[5]
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 (WIBF) which is a major sanctioning body of women's boxing.
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; 2019 was the first year that women were on the ballot.[12][13]
References
^"Fairground to Hall of Fame for gran they tried to ban", The Times, 28 November 2011
^Knass, Katie (7 October 2010). "It's a knockout! Boxing Barbara is first woman in hall of fame: E YORKS: One woman's journey from Hessle to place among fight game greats". Hull Daily Mail. ProQuest756921794.
^"'Ban this girl boxer'", Daily Mail, 4 February 1948