CRI听力:Womens Boxing in China

Boxing fans came to lend loud support to China's elite female fighters as they duked it out inside the ring last night in Jinzhou.

Sporting tight cornrows and rock-solid biceps, China's female boxers are easy to distinguish.

Many of them switched over to boxing after training in other martial arts.

Zhejiang boxer, Cheng Jing, trained in Taekwondo before picking up boxing.

"I grew up practicing taekwondo as a child, but I thought there were more opportunities with boxing because of the way it was developing. At first I didn't really like boxing that much, but the more I trained, the more I started to love it."

Like many sports in China, boxing has received a big boost by the success of Chinese boxer, Zou Shiming, who won his debut pro fight back in April.

Zou is also the first Chinese boxer to win not just one, but three separate world titles at the World Amateur Boxing Championships.

He also won back-to-back Olympic golds in the light flyweight division at the 2008 and 2012 games.

Womens boxing doesn't have any major stars yet.

Cheng says that the best way to promote female boxing at this stage in its development, is just to let people know about the sport's benefits.

"The best way to promote boxing is tell people that it keeps you in shape, it helps you maintain a good physique, and it also teaches you how to defend yourself."

Although not well known outside the boxing circle, there is one female boxer who is starting to make a name for herself.

Special Force's Ren Cancan is considered one of the sport's pioneers after she became China's first female boxer to qualify and medal at the London Olympics.

And Ren is still on track to win a title at this year's national games, after defeating her Hei Long Jiang opponent Wang Yan last night.

For CRI, I'm Jordan Lee.