Above: Jane Couch on her way to widely outpointing Brenda Drexel in September 2003. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

NOW THE DOYENNE OF BRITISH BOXING AND A 2024 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE, JANE COUCH’S PERSONAL BATTLE FOR RESPECT AND OPPORTUNITY UNLOCKED DOORS FOR THE CHAMPIONS OF TODAY

January 2024. 2012 Olympian and two-division world champion Natasha Jonas is making the walk for her title fight against Mikaela Mayer at Echo Arena in Liverpool, and there’s a familiar face leading her to the ring.

Jane Couch.

“Without Jane, we’re not here,” Jonas told Sky Sports in a pre-fight interview. “She’s always been very supportive of me throughout my career, and it was only right that the woman that paved the way for us can now pave the way for me walking to the ring.”

Jonas, who defeated Mayer via split decision that night, has always been all class, but recognizing her compatriot took things to a new level, because, as she said, without Jane, no British female boxer is headlining arena shows, getting worldwide broadcast coverage or securing paydays that allow them to make a living at this.

But for Couch, this was always going to be the reality. It just took a little while.

” … I just kept coming back and was banging the drum here, and they’re all going, ‘You’re crazy. It’ll never happen.’”

“I did picture it,” Couch said. “When I was boxing, I always had to box in America because it wasn’t allowed in England. So I was going to America and boxing on the same bill as Roy Jones Jr. and Vitali Klitschko; Lucia Rijker was a big name then, so was Ann Wolfe, and they were boxing on all the big TV shows and I was lucky enough to be a part of all that. And I just thought, ‘I wonder why this can’t happen in England.’ And then I just kept coming back and was banging the drum here, and they’re all going, ‘You’re crazy. It’ll never happen.’ But look how right I was. And now it’s turned around. All the big girls’ fights were there, and now they’re here.”

“Big” is a relative term when you think about Couch’s career, which spanned from 1994 to 2007. There were some superstar female fighters competing who eventually earned a place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, such as Christy Martin, Laila Ali and a pair of Couch’s former foes, Rijker and Holly Holm. But as far as big fights like the ones taking place these days, such as Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano or Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall, they were basically non-existent. 

Couch (left) made the second defense of her WIBF junior welterweight title by outpointing Leah Mellinger in August 1997. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Allsport/Getty Images)

Ali had her fight with Jacqui Frazier-Lyde in 2001, which got its fair share of media attention. Martin and Rijker competed on undercards of Don King and Top Rank events, respectively, and Holm was pretty much a franchise at home in Albuquerque. But there was nothing resembling the respect and paydays women’s boxing commands today. 

How bad was it? In May 1996, after expenses, Couch brought home 200 pounds ($310 at the time) to Fleetwood, England, for winning the WIBF junior welterweight title in her fifth fight by beating Sandra Geiger in Denmark. Her four previous pro bouts were held in her home country but were unsanctioned and not under the auspices of the powerful British Boxing Board of Control, forcing her to go overseas for the opportunity to make a career out of her sport. And while the money wasn’t great, Couch, who picked up the sport after seeing a documentary on women’s boxing, was willing to fight anyone and everyone, making her not just a popular figure among aficionados of the sweeter science, but also the type of fighter promoters wanted on their shows.

“I had a dream and a belief, and I just wanted to compete and be the best. And I knew one day it would come, but the struggle was real.”

Couch successfully defended her title twice, defeating Andrea DeShong in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Leah Mellinger in Mashantucket, Connecticut, before losing a pair of bouts to Dora Webber, the second for the vacant IWBF belt. It was around the time of the second loss to Webber in early 1998 that she filed a sex discrimination suit against the BBBofC after they refused to license her for a proposed 1997 fight on a Lennox Lewis undercard at Wembley Arena in London, citing, among other things, that a woman having her period would make her unstable to fight.

Yes, this was 1998, not 1908, but the BBBofC was sticking to its guns.

So was Couch, who fought tooth and nail for her right to fight. I asked her if it’s possible to explain what it was like going up against an entire industry alone, with even the boxing media refusing to back her one hundred percent.

“It’s impossible to put into words,” said Couch. “It really is. But, at the time, I had a dream and a belief, and I just wanted to compete and be the best. And I knew one day it would come, but the struggle was real. And the abuse and the stick that I had to take sometimes, you just really wanted to give it all up and walk away. It’s not like there was any money in it, in them days. So you wasn’t doing it for the money. But it was the American women that kept me going. They were fighting the same battle over there. And I just thought, ‘Just keep going, keep going, keep going.’ And I had that sort of character where I try not to let things defeat me.”

Couch battled the fearsome Lucia Rijker on the undercard of Lennox Lewis’ farewell triumph over Vitali Klitschko in 2003. (Photo by Nick Potts /PA Images via Getty Images)

She wouldn’t lose this fight. In August of 1998, the 30-year-old Couch won her case and was granted a professional boxing license. One of her lawyers, Sara Leslie, told the BBC, “Jane has achieved her goal. She has not just redressed the injustice that she faced as a professional athlete, but she has paved the way for other sportswomen in Britain.”

Sportswomen like Jonas, Marshall, Nicola Adams, Chantelle Cameron, Sandy Ryan, Ellie Scotney, Caroline Dubois, Lauren Price, Terri Harper, Karriss Artingstall and Rhiannon Dixon, just to name a few of the U.K.’s best. 

But before those doors swung wide open for the aforementioned boxers, Couch had her own career to tend to, and just three months after getting her license, she broke it in with a fight against Simona Lukic in South London. There would still be battles waged in the media as the likes of Frank Warren and Frank Maloney were very vocal about their opposition to women’s boxing, but Couch had already left critics in the dust by continuing her career.

She successfully defended the WIBF belt again by defeating Marischa Sjauw, added a pair of titles at 135 pounds two fights later when she beat Sharon Anyos (both at home in England), and still traveled to the States to compete in big fights, including a bout with Rijker on the Lewis-Vitali Klitschko card in Los Angeles.

Couch didn’t win them all, but she won her share, retiring with a 28-11 record that included nine knockouts. And if her in the ring resume was legit, her impact on the sport outside the ropes was even more profound. It’s why she was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for her services to 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 join the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

“It was a bit of a shock, I’ll tell you that,” said Couch, but it shouldn’t have been. If anyone earned her place among the greats, it was “The Fleetwood Assassin,” who would do it all over again.

“I just loved boxing,” she said. “I would’ve died for boxing. At the time I was fighting, I was just so passionate about it. I didn’t have the easiest of upbringing and I was used to fighting. All I know, even today, is to fight. And I just believed that opportunities would come and one day I’d make it better for somebody else. And that’s what I did.”