SURGE FOR WOMEN`S BOXING IN CHINA

By James Blears

Chun Yan Xu aged 26 ( 6-3, with 3 KO`s) from Bejing, China is the WBC international female featherweight champion, and ambitious to go one better.

With a 61 inch reach, she`s planning to extend herself yet further, by reaching the United States in order to fight the toughest and most talented opponents available.

We managed to catch up with Chun Yan Yu, to ask her about how she`s found boxing, how the sport is developing in the World`s most populous country and what goals she`s setting for herself.

1. How did you start in Boxing?

When I was very young, I was very mischievous and liked to get into trouble. I used to like to fight with other kids. In December 2004, my Parents advised me to go and try boxing with Coach Dong Tian for about a month and a half, to see if I liked it, so I did. I came home for Chinese New Year and in March, 2005, I then went to Ningbo and got selected for his team. This is the team I`ve stayed with for my entire career. Coach Tian, by the way, is the coach who began the Women’s National Olympic team for the 2012 Olympics.

2. What obstacles did you have to overcome to achieve success?

Most of the obstacles have been in terms of injury and the fact that there aren’t a lot of female competitions.

3. How did you become a WBC Champion and what does this mean to you and your family?

In those days it was difficult to get any training with women of other countries. For whatever reason we could not get international competitions for amateur or professional boxing. So our coach set up competitions wherever he could outside of China, whether it was Korea, Japan or China so we could fight. Generally, these would be professional fights. At some point, it became clear I was better at professional boxing than amateur and a female British coach helped me and we won the WBC title at 57kg. Along the way, I suffered some injuries including broken bones but eventually I got the title. The coach was Michelle Aboro. She trained me for 2 months. Coach Tian found her for me. My family was very happy with the win. They had always been very supportive but they were really worried with that fight because I suffered a broken bone – an orbital fracture- and they were worried I might have another one.

4. Who do you want to fight next, and is it your ambition to become absolute champion?

I don`t know who I want to fight next, just that I need to go to the US to fight.

5. What`s your opinion of the still low purses that women boxers fight for? How can this be improved, and when will women fighters earn what they really deserve?

In China, there is no rhyme or reason for purses like in the US. There are only one or two who command high purses and it has nothing to do with whether they are good boxers or champions. To get to equality for men and women, the entire boxing infrastructure must be overhauled.

6. How is boxing, and women`s boxing developing in China?

Currently, professional boxing in China is just wild. Having said that, while there are male events, there simply aren’t any female competitions. If you want a professional female bout, you need to make the match yourself, market it yourself, do everything yourself. I don`t know what needs to change in China to make things different. It’s a large place with a lot of obstacles for all boxers but especially women.

The WBC would like to thank its Female Boxing Chairman Malte Muller-Michaelis, it`s Representative in China Liu Tao, his Translater Lusary “Lucy” Liu and Martha Shen-Urquidez, for their outstanding help, cooperation and kindness, in helping to make this report possible.