Perched behind the reception desk of Bermondsey Boxing Club, clad in a yellow hoodie with the thwacking sound of sparring behind her, Manya Klempner couldn't be further away from the top rungs of the big corporate banks on her CV. 

But it's a place where she feels right at home, having developed a passion for boxing in 2013 after enlisting a personal trainer with a background in the sport to help her get fit after the birth of her son. That passion soon turned her corporate career on its head, as she quit her job to start The Boxing House, opening her first boxing gym just before the pandemic with two more to follow within four years – building a loyal and growing membership of more than 6,500 despite skeptical investors.

There's a key factor boosting Manya's success: 40% of her members are women, a huge portion compared with the rest of the boxing market (around 10% of England Boxing members, a governing body for amateur boxing clubs, are women). While Manya didn't set out to attract a female clientele, her success is built on a premium offering that didn't pander to women – indicating a shift in the sport and fitness worlds to treating women as equal competitors, rather than stuck in second place.

The road to the ring

When Manya was ready to move on from sparring with her trainer in the park, she felt there wasn't a clear next step. She moved beyond a standard gym's boxercise classes but found amateur boxing club venues and locations lacking.

‘These clubs were originally set up to keep boys and men off the street,’ Manya says. ‘They're doing a fantastic job for social impact and developing great boxers. But I wanted to be able to use my credit card and take a shower in a nice bathroom.’

Manya was convinced there'd be other corporate women – and professionals as a whole – who would love boxing, if it could be repackaged. She honed in on locations that would capture corporate commuters and developed a minimal look – think polished wood floors, discreet inspirational slogans printed on the ceiling beams, spa-inspired bathrooms and a sauna. Women are matched with men in sparring sessions as long as they're in the same weight category. The all-women classes that the club offers run only once per week, highlighting how the women who come to Manya's clubs don't want to be hidden away. Manya also hired women with a passion for the sport into high-level visible roles. 

‘It has to develop naturally, through leading by example,’ she says. ‘It's less about pushing “women, women, women”, and more about making women feel comfortable.’

The bigger boxing picture

Manya has also touched on a bigger trend, as the world of boxing – and women's sports – is changing rapidly. For example, England Boxing's female membership numbers have risen by 80% since 2016, while the number of women regularly involved in the sport, including boxing-related fitness classes, rose 18% between 2015 and 2019, up to 420,400. It's notable growth for a sport that excluded women until 1996 – the female competition was introduced at the Olympics only in 2012. And, just this year, some high-profile fights have put women's boxing firmly in the sports spotlight.

This is creating the community that'll make boxing, in Manya's view, the next ‘lifestyle sport’, similar to how golf and tennis are built around club culture. ‘Being part of something else and not just doing exercise for the sake of it is inspiring,’ she says.

For more on Manya's road to the ring, read the full story here.

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