Mia St. John and Mary Kom: Female Boxers in the news …

From barely a trickle of stories about women’s boxing, there is a fair amount of press — all over the world about women’s boxing.  Here are stories featuring American boxer Mia St. John and India’s great amateur Olympic hopeful Mary Kom!

Mia St. John has granted an exclusive interview to Jake Emen over at Proboxingfans.com on her upcoming June 19th battle against the great Christy Martin.  Here’s a smattering of the interview …

“You’ve been fighting professionally since 1997, so it’s been 15 years. How much longer will you continue to fight, and is there any way this is your last fight?

Mia: I have to fight Christy one more time after this! We have to do the rubber match! Other than that, I’m done. I’ve lived out dream and it was a hell of a ride.”

The article link is here.

India’s leading contender for Gold in the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games — with a eye first on winning a berth to the 2012 Women’s World Championships this coming May in China is none other than Mary Kom.  The five time amateur champion has recently upped her weight class to 51 KG  in order to compete.  She is currently a participant in the 6th Asian Women’s Boxing Championships being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where she has advanced to the quarter finals.

This recent piece entitled India’s Mary Kom keeps proving doubters wrong is particularly revealing of her struggles to become a world-class boxing champion and is well worth the read.  Here is a brief preview …

“When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, ‘What can women do in boxing?’” she said. “I took it as a challenge. If men can do it why can’t women? And I became a world champion before my marriage.

“When I got married, they doubted if I can win again after marriage. I took it as the second challenge and proved myself.”

The article link is here.

India Today also has a story on Mary Kom entitled Boxing: Mary Kom off to a winning start about her quarterfinal win.