BATTLE OF THE SEXES
“HE WAS PHYSICALLY STRONGER THAN THE AVERAGE WOMAN BOXER…BUT I WAS NOT THE AVERAGE WOMAN BOXER”
WRESTLER Ric Flair famously said “to be the man, you’ve got to beat the man”, and some 21 years ago Margaret McGregor did that very thing – despite being a woman.
October 1999 was a strange time for women’s boxing. Mia St John peeled off for Playboy in a move that generated more attention than her athletic abilities ever would. Laila Ali made her debut and, by virtue of her famous father, became female boxing’s biggest star in the 31 seconds it took her to brush aside a tubby waitress. And one day later McGregor contested the first and only licensed male vs female boxing match in history – and won it.
Women’s boxing was at the time still seen by many Americans as a novelty act at best. Ability was no antidote to anonymity. If they were lucky, genuinely world class operators might get a spot beneath Butterbean on a Top Rank card. Otherwise they would typically have to fight
