In October 1999, just before the turn of the millennium, history was made as Margaret MacGregor became the first woman to fight a man, Loi Chow, in a sanctioned boxing bout.
Margaret ‘Tiger’ MacGregor had built a record of 3-0 before facing Chow, who himself had an unsuccessful boxing career of only two bouts, both of which he lost by knockout.
Chow’s previous fights were against opponents with a combined record of 0-5, and he had not fought for three years before taking the fight against MacGregor. Despite this, he seemed confident he could defeat MacGregor, stating in an interview: “I just can’t see how she could beat me.”
MacGregor couldn’t see anything but a loss for herself, saying: “I feel pretty confident that I will get past, definitely his first punch.”
The fight marked one of the more unique stories in boxing, rivaled by Tony Galento’s fight with an octopus, or the longest bout ever which lasted 110 rounds.
Loi Chow drops a humiliating loss to Margaret MacGregor as first and only mixed bout sees a win for women
The fight caused severe criticism in its build-up, with veteran manager, Rock Newman exclaiming:
“I shudder at the thought. He’s throwing lefts and rights and hitting her in her face. That potential image is horrifying to me.”
However, any fears that MacGregor would be seriously injured by Chow as a result of his gender were quickly put to one side as MacGregor defeated him on points, winning every round of their four-round contest.
The fight was reportedly sanctioned at the time, though would later be recognized only as an exhibition bout by the Association of Boxing Comissions.
World champion Claressa Shields dropped by 6-1 male in sparring
Though MacGregor won, the concern was very real ahead of the fight. One less successful incident of a woman and a man fighting, or, in this case, sparring, was when Claressa Shields, the self-proclaimed ‘Greatest Woman Of All Time (GWOAT)’ took on 6-1 Arturs Ahmetov.
In the footage, Shields is dropped by a left hook from Ahmetov. Shields, however, claims that Ahmetov removed the padding from his gloves ahead of their spar, making his punches far more dangerous.
Whether this is true or not is unclear, as Ahmetov has never given his side of the spar. Ahmetov’s one career loss came at the hands of Ryan Garcia‘s next opponent, Rolando Romero.
Shields’ latest fight saw her win the undisputed heavyweight crown, though it was not without controversy as the referee pushed Shields’ opponent, Danielle Perkins, to the canvas during the fight.