By Frank Warren

THE DEATH IN SOUTH AFRICA of a female boxer reinforces my long-held personal view that this is not a sport for women.

It seems especially tragic that a young woman has died as a result of being knocked out during a recent fight in what has been a wretched week for South African sport.   

Phindile Mwelase, a 31-year-old professional light-welterweight, fell into a coma following a bout in Pretoria on October 10 and sadly never recovered.

It was the third fatality for a South Africa sportsperson in less than four days after the runner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was killed in a car crash last Friday and the national goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was murdered by robbers at his girlfriend's home on Sunday night.

The South African President Jacob Zuma has expressed his "heartfelt condolences on the untimely death" of Mwelase, saying: "she joined a sport that is predominantly male and was proving that women can also succeed in boxing."

Well, maybe. But at what cost?

Inevitably female participation in boxing now will be under intense scrutiny when the women's world championships take place in South Korea next month, with Hartlepool's Savannah Marshall bidding to become the first ever British women to become a two-time world champion.

I wish her and the other three Brits well. But it is not an event I will be following.

I make no bones about it. I don't like women's boxing. Never have and never will.

I admire anyone who does any sport at whatever level and some women like to express themselves through boxing, but I've never hidden the fact that I'm not a fan.

It is not a chauvinistic stance because I'm all for equality in sport and in life but I am just not comfortable seeing girls attempting to belt bits off each other in the ring, no more than I am knowing they are now fighting on the front line in wars.

Apart from anything else I worry about the effect being repeatedly hit in the stomach might have on their reproductive system. There have been cases of women boxers turning up at a weigh-in and found to be pregnant. Obviously they were not allowed to fight but what was happening to their bodies at all the sparring sessions beforehand?

Having said that I think what Nicola Adams did in the Olympics was absolutely brilliant. Winning that first gold medal was great for women, for sport and the nation. She has become a terrific ambassador - but I would not choose to watch her fight nor to promote her should she turn professional.

Call me an old git, but that's how I see it. It is probably a generation thing because my two sons Francis and George who work with me on Queensberry Promotions say they would happily put female boxers on the bill.

Ok, so Nicola has shown us there is more to women's boxing than just handbags at ten paces but I do not believe it is something the average fan would pay to watch. As a promoter I don't think it is commercially viable in this country.

The interest is not there and never has been going back to the days when Jane Couch was a pioneer female professional. She was always pressing me to promote her but I declined. On reflection I was probably risking a right-hander as the formidable 'Fleetwood Assassin' once flattened a bloke in a Blackpool bar when he kept patting her bum after she asked him to stop!

I find it something of an anomaly that AIBA, the international body which brought women's boxing into the London Olympics, has ordered head guards for male boxers in major tournaments to be removed but say women must still wear them. Their apparent reasoning is that spectators don't like to see girls getting hit in the face. Well, I don't like to see them getting hit anywhere.

I'm not saying the only place for women in the ring is carrying the round cards. If they want to fight each other, that's their choice, as it mine is not to watch it.

So I say good luck to the ladies who punch. But I'm afraid you don't float my boat.

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Last week I wrote that I have never known of a fixed fight in modern boxing. I stand by that despite the astonishing claim by Tim Witherspoon, twice briefly world heavyweight champion and remembered here for battering Frank Bruno at Wembley, that he took a dive in his subsequent bout at Madison Square Garden in 1986 against James 'Bonecrusher' Smith (below, left). He says in his new autobiography that he deliberately went down three times in the first round because he wanted to get away from promoter Don King.

James 'Bonecrusher' Smith

Really? I am always sceptical when someone has a book to sell, as 'Terrible Tim' has. I think this is a load of balls.

You don't get out of contracts with my old sparmate King that easily. It just doesn't happen.

More likely food-loving Witherspoon, now, 56, was out of shape, as he often was, and if he hit the floor three times so quickly it was because he got caught with good shots. His opponent was not called 'Bonecrusher' for nothing, as Bruno, also a Smith victim, will testify.

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Note the name Jack Catterall. I predict it will be on every fight fan's lips this time next year.

The 21-year-old light-welter from Chorley is a fast-rising prospect who has emerged from the amateur ranks without fuss or fanfare and in his tenth pro fight he sensationally stopped the unbeaten former Olympian and GB team captain Tom Stalker on our Liverpool show last Saturday, despite getting cut.

Jack Catterall

He is a calm, measured young fighter with a ferocious finish who has shrewdly spent time with his trainer, Lee Beard, learning the ropes at Floyd Mayweather Jr's gym in Las Vegas.

I believe he will be the new northern star and maybe a genuine successor to Ricky Hatton.

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A great night's action in Liverpool last week saw super-flyweight ace Paul Butler put on a master class performance against Mexican Isamel Garnica, big-hitting Liam Smith halting Zoltan Sera in three rounds to win the vacant WBA Continental Light-Middleweight Championship and Kevin Satchell crowned Liverpool's first European Flyweight Champion in 24 years when he defeated Valery Yanchy. Derry Mathews also claimed the vacant WBA Continental Lightweight title in a battle with the brave Adam Dingsdale and a thrilling North-West war unfolded between Liverpool's Tom Stalker and Chorley's Jack Catterall for the Vacant WBO European Light-Welterweight title.

Paul Butler v Ismael Garnica

(I'll be returning to the big fight city in February with Butler and his rescheduled IBF World Super-Flyweight title challenge against Zolani Tete, plus a host of other big Liverpool stars for a huge night. Stay tuned for further information.)

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Fantastic action, live and exclusive on BoxNation, tomorrow night from Chicago with big-hitting Japanese star Tomoki Kameda defending his WBO World Bantamweight title against two-time world title challenger Alejandro Hernandez. Paul Butler, the former IBF World Bantamweight Champion, will be keeping a close eye on Kameda as he could be a potential target next year.

Tomoki Kameda celebrates

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