In 1897, the black newspaper, the Richmond Planet reported in a section devoted to church news and morality, that female pugilists were issuing challenges to one another and enter- ing into combat.67 Another article from the same paper claims that as one black female pugilist was fighting in the ring she had kept her “little baby suspended in a basket from the ceiling.”68
Excerpt from Van Ingen’s research
No exact month/but year 1897
Sue "TL" Fox, Multi-Hall of Famer, award-winning pioneer boxer rated #1 in the world in 1979, and creator/founder of WBAN™. She was named in the Feb. 2012 Commemorative issue of Ring Magazine as one of the Top-Ten Most Influential female boxers of all time. Since its inception on the Internet 27 plus years ago, WBAN has become the world’s leading authority for resource and information in female boxing. Fox outside the
ring is a professional musician and a retired police officer from Oregon. She also created and founded the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014. [In April of 2025, in Las Vegas, Fox will celebrate the 12th year anniversary of the IWBHF, and 27th year of WBAN as of May 18, 2025.]
