The problem many people have with boxing is that the risk is built-in to the point that the crowning moment of pro boxing, it's overtime goal, its home run, is a mild brain concussion. That very fact is part of what gives every boxing match at every level the same edge, the same intensity. Rahman can KO Lewis. Lenhart can KO Mahfood. One punch can turn a fight around, or end it altogether.
Boxers live on that edge, walking the tightrope between instant glory and instant defeat.
And women who train for that edge are building character through boxing just exactly like men have always said they do. Coping with fear, staying focused, competing on a razor's edge where one bad mistake can lose you the whole contest. There's not a tiny shred of evidence that women are more likely to be permanently injured in a boxing ring than men. So to save his sport from such criticism we should be treating women like fragile china. Sure, let's work to make boxing safer by having commissions that turn down obvious mismatches, by having proper emergency medical aid standing by at the shows, by keeping track of boxers who lose repeatedly and making sure boxers are who they say they are.