Barbara Buttrick: Humber’s Trailblazing Champion

Over the last 15 years we have seen a new golden age of Women’s sport, from the popularity of the Women’s Super league, the success of our Lionesses, to Katie Taylor regularly fighting in front of major crowds. However, it was Barbara ‘Battling’ Buttrick, who defied the societal norms of her era to carve out a remarkable career in the male dominated sport.

Barbara, born in Cottingham in 1930, is a pioneering figure in women’s boxing. She became a dominant force in the flyweight and bantamweight divisions during the 1950s. Buttrick’s passion for boxing began in her teens and she started her boxing career in 1948, touring Europe with carnivals as a bantamweight. She went to the United States in the mid-1950s and briefly joined the carnival circuit and in 1957, she moved to Dallas. Barbara and opponent Phyllis Kugler won the state's first boxing licenses for women, and a world title bout was held in San Antonio. Buttrick won a unanimous decision, making her the first women's world boxing champion.

Buttrick’s achievements laid the groundwork for the acceptance of women’s boxing. Once retired, she continued to advocate for the sport, founding the Women's International Boxing Federation (WIBF) in the 1990s to promote female fighters. Her life’s work was recognised in 2014, when shewas inducted into the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame. She spent her later years in Miami but has since returned to Cottingham, where she is still inspiring the next generation of women’s boxing.

Barbara Buttrick remains an icon of resilience and inspiration. Her contributions to boxing are a testament to her pioneering spirit and enduring legacy as one of Humbers most trailblazing athletes.