Hall of Fame my greatest achievement - Couch

Jane Couch finished her career with 28 wins and 11 losses

Jane Couch was just 27 years old when she took on the British boxing world for the right to fight in the professional ranks.

Couch was already a world champion by then and would go on to win more belts, two of them on British soil.

She paved the way for the stars of today, and in June 2024 will officially be inducted into the International Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather and George Foreman.

The Fleetwood fighter is the first British woman to be inducted and just the 10th on the 'modern' list.

"I've got a habit of being the first, haven't I?" Couch told BBC Sport.

When Couch was originally told she would be inducted, she was sure it was a scam with a New York phone number calling her out of the blue.

"Really?" was her first response, but she realised how serious the caller, organiser Ed Brophy, was.

"It's a bit surreal really. I mean there's Ali, Frazier in there. It takes a while to sink in. When you look at women's boxing in the UK, well I suppose I did do it [have a huge impact]," she said.

"I just realised how hard I did work and had to travel abroad to do it as well. A lot of the decisions that could have gone my way if I was at home.

"I was a bit of a warrior. Stubborn. I just wanted to make a difference and I certainly did that.

"But 39 pro fights, five world titles, the MBE and now the Hall of Fame - wow."

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Surreal is an appropriate description for the life Couch has lived. She was ridiculed and verbally beaten down as a freakshow when she first pushed to box in the UK.

Women's boxing was banned in the UK until 1998 and until 2001 in Ireland.

Couch would beat those naysayers in court, compete in 39 professional fights and be awarded an MBE in 2007 for her services to sport.

Even now, as she pays tribute to the women who inspired her like American Christy Martin and Ireland's own trailblazer Deirdre Gogarty, she is dropping off a voucher for a woman who was the victim of a dog attack in Fleetwood.

Couch intervened to help and was left with 16 stitches in her leg.

When she is officially inducted into the Hall of Fame it will be in Canastota in New York. She will travel with fellow inductee and long-time friend Ricky Hatton.

The British Boxing Board of Control said it was a "great achievement for both".

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Seven-weight world champion Amanda Serrano was one of the first people to congratulate Couch.

Puerto Rican Serrano called Couch a "true pioneer", saying "without this gem of a woman there would be no us".

Couch will stay at the Turning Stone Casino, about a four-hour drive from Foxwoods Casino where she fought three times and won her last title, the IWBF light-welterweight belt.

She considers the Hall of Fame induction a bigger honour than her MBE, and bigger than the belts she won as a professional.

"It's pinching yourself when you read the list. It's really, really an honour - an absolute honour," she said.

"It's quite a big thing. In a way, the hard time I had with the British Board to get recognised, it sort of ends the argument.

"Don't it? I don't really need to say any more about it.

"They fought to keep me out and to keep women out and now I'm in the Hall of Fame. They must be thinking, maybe we were wrong?"