Male-Female Fight? `Freak Show' -- Boxing Officials Universally Clobber Seattle Mixed Bout

Welcome to women's boxing.

In this corner, Mia St. John: mother of two, cupping her bare breast with a pair of gloves on the cover of this month's Playboy. In the other corner, Laila Ali: daughter of legendary fighter Muhammad Ali, scheduled to debut tomorrow in the sport that may have crippled her father with Parkinson's disease.

And standing at center ring, Margaret MacGregor: the part-time landscaper prepared to make history Saturday at Mercer Arena when she fights a man, Loi Chow, in the first sanctioned mixed-gender bout.

Together, the women have pushed the already-scrutinized sport into a public debate full of low blows and stiff jabs. The three find no reason not to use their tactics to give female fighters more exposure.

But it's MacGregor, a 5-foot-5, 135-pound rebel, who may have created the biggest stir since Mike Tyson and his ear-biting bit.

"This is a freak show," said Bruce Trampler, matchmaker for Top Rank Inc., based in Las Vegas. St. John and Oscar De La Hoya are among the 12 world-champion boxers the company promotes.

"There's not a call for this," he said. "If he beats the crap out of her to teach her a lesson, I'm all for it. But if she wins . . . they should put him in a dress and buy him a ticket out of town, never to show his face again. This is ridiculous, and I would never set something like this up."

Women are different

No women have run 100 meters in 9.8 seconds. They don't do 360-degree slam dunks. And women haven't pole-vaulted 19 feet.

"If you take a man and a woman and equally train them, the man is going to develop more strength, power and muscle mass," said John O'Kane, a sports-medicine physician at the University of Washington. "Boxing isn't a safe sport, but the woman is going to be at a disadvantage because of the significant difference in gender."

Some women can outperform some men, but medical studies support O'Kane's point. At the top level - like the WNBA's Cynthia Cooper vs. Michael Jordan - there is no comparison. Advantage Jordan.

"In boxing, there is technique involved in punching," O'Kane said. "And there's no reason why a woman couldn't learn the same technique, but the male's punch would always be harder."

MacGregor has a 3-inch height advantage over 5-foot-2 Chow. She's 3-0 against women since turning pro in April.

Chow is 0-2 and hasn't fought since 1996. He's a part-time jockey who admits boxing isn't his life's focus.

Assuming MacGregor makes the 130-pound weight limit, they'll compete in a four-round match. Each round will run two minutes.

Chow, 34, of Vancouver, B.C., has never fought a woman. MacGregor, 36, of Port Orchard, has sparred with men in training and had a few bloody noses from men in bar fights and kick-boxing competitions.

But on Saturday, neither will wear headgear and no one will call off the fight at the first sight of blood.

"I'm not concerned with Margaret getting hurt," said Vern Miller, her trainer at Twin Tiger Gym in Bremerton. "She's trained for this . . . people should be worried about him."

Fight commissioners united against it

In Larry Hazzard's 14 years as New Jersey athletic commissioner, no one has tried to sanction a mixed-gender fight. He says he wouldn't approve it if anyone tried. Neither would Marc Ratner, the Nevada Athletic Commission's executive director. Or Rob Lynch, the California Athletic Commission's executive officer.

"You're talking about a sport where, in the boxer's mind, they are trying to kill their opponent," Hazzard said. "We're dealing with individuals here, not equipment. We're supposed to protect the health and safety of the boxers. This is no novelty, these are human beings, and how it was approved in Seattle is incredible."

The Association of Boxing Commissions isn't recognizing the bout as a sanctioned match. Gregory Sirb, the organization's president and head of Pennsylvania's commission, said yesterday that Fight Fax will list the bout as an exhibition. Fight Fax is boxing's official record-keeper.

The fight is still sanctioned in Washington, and Sirb can't stop the match.

Sirb finds "no reason to mingle the sexes in this sport. This isn't about Title IX, and this isn't tennis. Getting hit by a little ball isn't the only thing she has to worry about."

Sirb was referring to the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973.

"But this," Sirb said, "is physical combat."

Sirb also disagreed with MacGregor's contention that three female opponents backing out of scheduled fights since June forced her to face a man.

"I counted 100 women boxers in her weight class that she could fight," Sirb said. "And if they back out, tough! That's a part of professional boxing. It's a useless reason to fight men."

Sirb's organization pleaded to Washington's Department of Licensing not to approve the fight, he said. Dale Ashley, former state boxing commissioner, said he would have stopped the fight, but former Gov. Mike Lowry disbanded the commission in 1995.

State Rep. Jim Clements, R-Selah, is trying to halt the fight. The co-chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee wants a hearing "to determine if fair, equal employment rights include the opportunity for a woman to box a man." If they do, he said, he would support action to close what he called a legal loophole.

The Department of Licensing uses the Professional Athletic Act to determine matches. Under the act, factors mandated by law are weight, skill level, a physical-health test and vision, urine and drug tests.

Gender is not a factor.

"It's disappointing for the fighters that the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) won't recognize this fight," said Geraldine Calvo, spokeswoman for the Department of Licensing. "But the fight is moving ahead as planned."

Aside from the gender and safety issues, other states' commissions had problems with the age of the opponents. Normally, MacGregor's age is the cutoff for fighters.

`A step backward'

Kim Messer's skin color rivals a tomato every time she talks about it.

No quality opponents? Messer, a 108-pound world champion kick-boxer and boxer from Bellevue, can't believe MacGregor would spout the words.

"It's a slap in the face to all of the women boxers out there," Messer said. "All of the blood and sweat we've spent trying to build this sport, for her to come out and say that discredits everything we built."

Tracy Byrd, a police officer in Michigan, agrees.

"Nobody called me. I'll fight (MacGregor)," said Byrd, 11-2 and ranked No. 2 in the world at 130 pounds. "I'll even go to her back yard. They have to fly me in, but I'll do it, and I could name 10 more looking for a fight.

"But all of this is a step backward. With Mia St. John, it's all about the booty and the breast - not the boxer.

"And (the mixed-gender fight) doesn't have any positives. If he wins, everyone says I told you so. If she wins, purists will say, `Look at these women, now they think they can take over.' "

Since female fighter Christy Martin's bloodied image was on the cover of Sports Illustrated three years ago, women have tried to gain respect in the sport. There are about 400 women professional fighters worldwide and 1,300 amateurs.

The talent disparity between genders is obvious in most fights, but the sport is popular. California averages about 120 five-card shows a year, and a woman card is included in most. Nevada and New Jersey average about 40 shows apiece and also showcase women's fights.

But television governs the sport. Few female fights have aired nationally.

The MacGregor-Chow bout just fuels one television executive's belief that women's boxing is pure novelty.

"It's pure exploitation, and we will never air mixed-gender fighting," said Lou DiBella, senior vice president of HBO Sports. "Televising women's boxing isn't in our immediate plans. It has such a long way to go before it's considered a world-class sport, we're not looking at it even though it would boost ratings one time."

Female fighters need to break into network broadcasts to grow, but one manager doesn't want women to sell out.

"We don't need to wrestle in mud or Jell-O or fight men to get it," said Shelley Williams of Prince Ranch Boxing in Las Vegas. "We gain respect by boxing and showing we can be competitive."

`I think it's fabulous'

Not everyone feels the fight is a step back for women's boxing or the women's movement.

"(Margaret's) given a choice, and that represents the whole women's movement," said Mary Clogston, president of the National Organization for Women's Washington chapter. "She was treated equally as a fighter and not based on her gender. You know, I'm 38 years old and I'm pregnant. She's 36 and she's going to fight. That's what it's all about, choices. And I think it's fabulous."

Sue Fox, the state's first female pro boxer and a retired world champion, said the fight couldn't hurt. She boxed in the 1970s and '80s and remembered two women fighting men in exhibitions.

"If it were sanctioned then, it would have hurt women's boxing," said Fox, a women's-boxing historian who is a police officer in Vancouver. "They avoided us like the plague then. But it's becoming very legitimate now, and people see it's exciting when you have two competitive fighters."

Troubling overtones of domestic violence

Chow says it with a confident swagger: "I'm going to knock her out."

Yet any image of a punch to MacGregor's face won't sit well with June Wiley.

Every nine seconds a woman is battered in America. Wiley, program manager at New Beginnings (a home for battered women and their children) has seen women shuffle in with black eyes, puffy lips and bruised bodies. The MacGregor-Chow fight won't help stop the cycle of domestic abuse, she said.

"The overwhelming majority of batterers are male perpetrating against females," Wiley said. "This could possibly perpetuate society's acceptance of violence against women."

Dr. M. MacKay-Brook, a Seattle psychotherapist who specializes in domestic violence, is quick to point out that an abuser can turn anything into justification for violence.

MacGregor knows. She was abused once about 10 years ago in her first marriage. There was a heated argument and her husband battered her face beyond recognition.

But this fight is different.

"One is about anger and control," MacGregor said. "This is a sport with two willing opponents. I hope women watch and see they don't have to take the abuse. They can train and become strong."

About 16,000 abused women seek help through emergency shelters in Seattle each year, and three times that number are turned away in King County, said Mary Pontarolo, executive director of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

"Violence shouldn't be used as entertainment," Pontarolo said. "But she's allowed to participate in the sport. That's her choice."

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.