A glimpse into the history of women's boxing ...

"The future George IV loved such social occasions, and in the Battle Royal (1788)...he is to be seen watching the match he has arranged between a working woman, 'Big Bess,' and his hanger-on Major William Hanger. The match fought at Plymouth lasted only five minutes, concluding with a knock-out blow and Big Bess being carried in triumph through the town exclaiming, 'I have done the Major!'"
This is from, I believe, the essay "Equivocations of Gender and Rank," Eighteenth-Century Life 16:1 (Winter 2002), 70-93. It was posted to the 18th-century email list by the author, Betty Rizzo.