The attempts to get women's amateur boxing started in Britain have faced tougher obstacles than those in the USA or Canada. Some British boxing gym owners who allowed females to join their programs were threatened with boycotts, making it much harder for women to find competent trainers. Their national amateur organisation has now relented and sanctioned female competition, although their pro boxing board is militantly opposed to women's participation in the sport.
Some people think that boxing is fit only for testosterone-laden males.
Others say that all boxing should be banned because of injuries suffered by professionals. Recent deaths of professional boxers in Britain have inspired outcry from the British Medical Association, further complicating the issue. But the British Amateur Boxing Association voted in November 1996 to sanction women's boxing beginning in October 1997. The full weight of sports media attention in Britain, fresh from debate about whether boxing should be banned at all levels and over whether women should be allowed to box professionally, descended on Emma Brammer. On the day before the match was to have taken place, she pulled out of it, citing a hostile media reaction as her main reason.