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DETROIT NATIVE SUN
DETROIT NATIVE SUN
By Valerie D. Lockhart
SUN EXECUTIVE EDITOR
As Dr. William Paul used boxing to help a group of women knock out unwanted pounds, a woman who wanted to compete approached and asked, "Are you a chauvinist? Why don’t you have women out here?"
The question struck the former Air Force Academy boxing champion like a jab in his gut.
“Why aren’t you training women in boxing,” Patricia Wagner asked.
She brought seven women then 45 to get trained.
Bouts to gain approval emerged from a simple question that would lead to the lifting of a ban prohibiting women from boxing and ultimately an international victory.
“In the 1970s women weren’t allowed in the ring. There were no rules, no protection, no future,” Paul said.
In June 1975, the Patricia Wagner Invitational Boxing Match debuted.
Paul wasn’t content with the victory and desired for women to be placed on both the amateur and professional boxing card. He continued to fight against commissions, lawmakers, and the AAU to allow women in the ring as boxers, not ring card girls.
“In December 1979, the Amateur Athletic Union National Convention adopted women’s boxing at Caesar’s Palace. Women could participate on the amateur scale”, Paul said.
Paul gained an unexpected supporter, when he ran into Muhammad Ali at an HBO Friday night fight, who overheard his request to officials to put women on the card.
Starring at sportscaster Howard Cosell and promoter Don King, Ali chanted, “Put those women on the card. Put those women on the card.”
Going the distance, Paul’s endurance paid off. In 1995, the Golden Gloves Association permitted women’s boxing.
The 2012 Summer Olympics in London became the turning point for women’s boxing in 120 countries, as it was added to the lineup. Paul wrote the rules limiting each match to 2 minutes and four rounds and requiring women to wear breast protectors, which are still used today.
“As boxing brought the jock cup, we brought the breast protector,” Paul, who also worked as a research technician at the University of Minnesota School for Medicine, said. “Women were getting hit in the chest, and I was concerned about them getting cancer. I found that no one was teaching about breast trauma. At Baptist Hospital, women who fell out of bed and hit their breast got cancer. Head trauma and percussion were related, so we needed to be concerned about breast trauma. Injury to the breast could cause cancer. I knew trauma was related to it. I made it mandatory that all women must have a breast examination beforehand.”
Although textbooks have omitted Paul’s contributions from its pages, his rules are still enforced in boxing making him the only living composer and father of modern day boxing.
“We may not be able to read about him in history books but the effects from his bouts to get women boxing onto the card cannot be erased,” Dr. Katarina Love, president of the International Women’s Boxing Association. “Women should concede to Dr. Paul. He deserves to be recognized at the 2028 Olympics. If it was not for him, modern day women’s boxing would be on the losing end. It’s like air. We can’t see it, but we need it to live. Rights in women’s boxing are just as significant as women’s right to vote. Now that we have it, we intend to keep it. We’re knocking out anyone who stands in our way.”
Dr. William Paul will be formally recognized on April 25 at noon during a special tribute in the Magnolia Room - Marietta, 2550 Sandy Plains Road #200 Marietta, Georgia 30066. The tribute will feature a viewing of a documentary on Paul, lunch, and an awards ceremony. For additional information, visit www.womensboxingassociation.com.
