Jane Couch, a leading figure in British boxing and a Hall of Fame inductee in 2024,'s personal fight for respect and opportunity has opened the door for today's champions.
JJanuary 2024. Natasha Jonas, the 2012 Olympian and two-weight world champion, was walking to her title fight against Mikaela Mayer at Liverpool's Echo Arena, and there was a familiar face leading her into the ring.
Jane Couch.
“Without Jane we wouldn't be here,” Jonas told Sky Sports in a pre-fight interview. “She's always supported me throughout my career and it's only natural that the woman who paved the way for us will now pave the way for me to step in the ring.”
Jonas, who defeated Mayer that night by split decision, has always been top-notch, but the recognition of her compatriot took things to a new level, because, as she says, without Jane, British female boxers would not be able to headline arena shows, be broadcast around the world or command a living wage.
But for Couch, this was always meant to become a reality — it just took a little while.
“I imagined it,” Couch said. “When I was boxing, I always had to box in America because it wasn't allowed in the UK. So I went to America and I was boxing on the same stage as Roy Jones Jr. and Vitali Klitschko. Lucia Rijker was famous at the time, as was Ann Wolff. They were boxing on the big TV shows, and I was lucky enough to be a part of all of that. So I just thought, 'Why isn't this happening in the UK?' And so I came back and kept shouting about it here, and people were like, 'That's crazy, it's never going to happen.' But I was right. And now it's changed. All the big women's fights were in the US, and now they're here.”
“Big” is a relative term when you consider Couch's career, which lasted from 1994 to 2007. It featured some superstar female fighters who are now in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and Couch's former rivals, Ryker and Holly Holm, but the big fights we see these days, like Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano or Claressa Shields vs. Savannah Marshall, were basically nonexistent.
Ali gained some media attention with his 2001 fight against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, Martin and Rijker fought on the undercards of Don King and Top Rank events, respectively, and Holm was something of a franchise based in Albuquerque, but back then there was none of the respect or big paydays that women's boxing enjoys today.
How bad was it? In May 1996, expenses subtracted, Couch defeated Sandra Geiger in Denmark to win the WIBF junior welterweight title in her fifth bout, taking home £200 ($310 at the rate of the time) to Fleetwood, England. Her previous four professional fights had taken place in her home country, but they were unsanctioned and not backed by the powerful British Boxing Board of Control, forcing her to go overseas for a chance to make a career in the sport. And although there wasn't much prize money, Couch, who took up the sport after watching a documentary on women's boxing, was willing to fight anyone, which made her not only a favorite among boxing enthusiasts, but also the type of fighter promoters wanted to have on their shows.
Couch defended the title twice, defeating Andrea DeShon in New Orleans, Louisiana and Leah Mellinger in Mashantucket, Connecticut, before losing twice to Dora Weber. Around the time of her second loss, in early 1998, Couch filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the BBBofC after the BBBofC refused to license her 1997 bout, scheduled as an undercard to Lennox Lewis at Wembley Arena in London, on grounds that menstruating women would be in an unstable state for the fight.
Granted, this was 1998 and not 1908, but the BBBofC stood their ground.
So was Couch, who fought tooth and nail to get the right to fight. I asked her if she could describe what it was like going up against an entire industry, alone, when even the boxing media wasn't 100% behind her.
“It's impossible to put into words,” Couch said, “really. But I had a dream and a belief back then and I just wanted to compete and be the best. I knew it would come someday but it was really hard. I got abused and criticized at times and I wanted to just give it all up and walk away. There was no money to be made back then so it wasn't really for the money. But it was the American women that supported me because they were fighting the same battle over there. I was just like, 'Just keep going, keep going, keep going.' I was the type of person that never let things defeat me.”
She could not lose this fight. In August 1998, aged 30, Couch won her case and received her professional boxing licence. One of her lawyers, Sarah Leslie, told the BBC: “Jane achieved her goal. Not only has she righted the injustice she faced as a professional athlete, she has paved the way for other British athletes.”
There are many of Britain's top female sportspeople including Jonas, Marshall, Nicola Adams, Chantelle Cameron, Sandy Ryan, Ellie Scotney, Caroline Dubois, Lauren Price, Teri Harper, Carice Artingstall and Rhiannon Dixon.
However, before the doors were swung wide open to the aforementioned boxers, Couch was working on her own career, making her debut against Simona Lukic in South London just three months after receiving her licence. There was some controversy in the media, with fighters like Frank Warren and Frank Maloney speaking out against women's boxing, but Couch had already beaten her critics by continuing with her career.
She defeated Marisha Shau to reclaim the WIBF belt, then two fights later beat Sharon Años to win the WIBF and WBF lightweight titles (both in the UK), before traveling to the US for some big fights, including a match against Rijker in the Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko fight in Los Angeles.
Couch didn't win every title, but she did have her share of wins, retiring with a record of 28-11, including nine knockouts. If her career in the ring was genuine, her impact on boxing outside the ropes was even greater. That's why she was awarded an MBE for her services to the sport and inducted into the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016. And late last year, she got the call from Canastota to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame's Class of 2024.
“I was kind of shocked, to be honest,” Couch said, but there was no need to be shocked: if anyone had ever made it into the ranks of great singers, it was “The Fleetwood Assassin,” and she'd do it again.
“I just loved boxing,” she says, “and I would have given my life for it. When I was boxing, it was my passion. I didn't have a privileged upbringing, and I was used to fighting. Even now, all I know is fighting, and I believed that one day my opportunity would come along and I would be able to help someone. And I did.”
