Girl boxer pulls out of fight
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Your support makes all the difference.A boxing match betwen two teenage girls was cancelled yesterday following an outcry over the Amateur Boxing Association's decision to support it. Steve Boggan says that although a battle was lost, for women boxers the war may just be starting.
In the end, it wasn't an uppercut or a jab or a haymaker that floored Emma Brammer. It was the media attention and, for a 13-year-old, there was no shame in that.
She decided to call off her historic - some would say barbaric - fight against fellow 13-year-old Andrea Prime after widespread criticism of the bout from boxers, commentators and doctors.
It would have been the first fight sanctioned by the Amateur Boxing Association following a change in its rules earlier this week. The girls would have squared up last night at a club in Stoke-on-Trent but the growing media attention, bordering on the hysterical, proved too much for Emma.
Her father, Derek Brammer, 42, from Stoke, a life-long supporter of boxing, ended the controversy with a brief statement.
"I can confirm that she has withdrawn," he said. "All the adverse publicity surrounding the match has put too much pressure on her.
"She will not be giving up boxing. That is all I am prepared to say."
The proposed fight had split the boxing community. Many, like former British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper, called for it to be banned; others, like Barry McGuigan, former featherweight champion, said it would be sexist to deny women the right to box.
The British Medical Association said simply that to allow women to fight was "demented". It would, a spokesman said, give them equal rights as men to suffer brain damage.
Rob Robertson, chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association, said he was disappointed by the decision to pull out.
"I find it very sad that a young woman has been prevented from expressing her right to choose her sport because of some of the aggressive interviewing that has taken place. Really, she feels that the pressure is too great."
However, he said many other women were clamouring to box.
"It is not a question of us having to find women who want to take part in a match; in fact there are a thousand women in our clubs and they will do so.
"It is a misrepresentation to say it is dangerous and for one spokesman to conclude it is barbaric is a travesty and not what we know amateur boxing to be."
Andrea's father, Ken Prime, of Wigston, Leicester, said his daughter was "bitterly disappointed" that the fight had been cancelled. But he said he would allow her to box as long as she wanted to.
"I do not feel I have to defend myself over this," he added.
"My daughter likes boxing and while she is enjoying it I am allowing her to do it.
"If she wanted to go horse riding then I would take her horse-riding. It's just the same."
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