Your welcome Buckshot - and to answer your Q I guess the reasons a female might get into boxing initially might be slightly different but I think the reasons we stick with it are probably similar.

I was going to uni across the road from a kickboxing gym. I decided to join just for some exercise, self defence and outlet for study stress. I was a bit used to contact sport from playing grass hockey - which is not meant to be a contact sport but I think leads to more broken bones etc than I see in boxing.

Plus i have two giant older brothers who try to kill each other on a regular basis (one's a judo coach and the other is just a bit psycho) so I guess that helped me understand the attraction to fighting for fun.

I soon became hooked to the technical side of kickboxing and really enjoyed sparring although it was a while before I was allowed to spar. Lucky I didn't initially find a dodgy boxercise place where they teach you punch without actually knowing how to punch themselves - one of my pet hates. Still people who don't box can't necessarily tell the difference.

Although kickboxing gyms are not always a lot better at teaching you to punch either which I learnt the hard way by taking a boxing fight for experience when I'd only trained as a kickboxer and got totally bashed! That was a reality check and I've been straight boxing ever since to learn how to do it properly.