Cathy Davis

Davis sued the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) in 1977 because she was denied a boxing license because she was a woman, and the case was decided in her favor later that year, with the judge invalidating New York State rule number 205.15, which stated, “No woman may be licensed as a boxer or second or licensed to compete in any wrestling exhibition with men.”^[5][6] In his opinion the judge cited the precedent set by Garrett v. New York State Athletic Commission (1975), which “found the regulation invalid under the equal protection clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions”. The NYSAC filed an appeal of the ruling, but later dropped it.^[7]

In August 1978 Davis became the first, and, until Ronda Rousey in January 2016, the only woman to be on the cover of The Ring.^[8][9]

On September 19, 1978, Davis received the NYSAC’s first boxing license given to a female boxer.^[10]

Cat Davis did not only fight in New York. She fought between 1976 and 1981,^[1][2] in various areas of the country, including Nevada, California, and much of the Northwest. She became popular throughout the country by often fighting on television.^[11]

It was eventually revealed that some of her fights had been fixed.^[3][4]

Officially, her first fight occurred on November 11, 1977, when she knocked out Margie Dunson in the first round, in North Carolina. On June 7, 1978, she and Ernestine Jones fought to a no contest in a bout that was scheduled for four rounds.^[11][12] On July 2, 1979, she knocked out Uschi Doering in the Exposition Building, in Portland, Maine, in 6 rounds.^[13][14]