Should Raven Chapman Get A Headline Slot After Her Telford Fight?
Raven Chapman is back out in Telford, while Female boxing is booming. Boxxer made history with its all-female card at the o2 arena, Taylor Serrano was the Ring Magazine’s Event of the Year in 2022 and women are headlining smaller hall shows on a regular basis.
However, Raven Chapman remains the only female boxer in Queensberry’s stable. In fairness, the promotional outfit is investing in bringing over international stars. Mikaela Mayer’s return bout against Christina Linardatou is the co-feature on the Joe Joyce Zhilei Zhang bill, while Amanda Serrano was chief support on the Joyce Parker PPV bill against Sarah Mahfoud for the unified featherweight titles.
A lot of the talk before and after the Mahfoud fight was around a future clash between Serrano and Chapman, suggesting that Queensberry wasn’t simply shoe-horning Serrano onto the card to cash in on the hype around women’s boxing, but to build towards the future. That would be welcome, but it necessitates a headline slot for Chapman, once she has defended her WBC international trinket at the weekend against Linda Laura Lecca.
Should Raven Chapman Get A Headline Slot?
The reason that top billing for Raven Chapman is essential is so she is given a fair crack at being able to sell a big fight down the line. Her showcases of talent in recent fights are such, that it leaves no doubt the breakthrough moment onto the elite scene will come sooner for Chapman than may have been first anticipated by Queensberry when it debuted her on BT Sport, last May. Accordingly, the glare of her spotlight needs to be intensified.
From a cross-comparison perspective, it took Katie Taylor eight fights to headline York Hall. It’s not unreasonable for Raven Chapman to get a similar opportunity, one fight earlier on than Taylor. Especially because, in large part thanks to the Irish legend taking to the stage in Bethnal Green as headliner, women’s boxing has increased in commercial value significantly since she fought Jessica McCaskill that night in 2017.
Queensberry will be itching for a chance to make its stake in the market of female boxing. Especially as they worked with Nicola Adams in the past, but sadly she drew at the world title level and retired afterward. Chapman could be a future superstar for Queensberry and BT Sport. The time is now to capitalize on that opportunity.
By Harry Duffy
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