Background
Shain grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, and attended New York University.
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Eva Shain
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New York University.
Career
She started judging amateur fights and in March 1975 became one of the first female professional boxing judges licensed by the New York State Athletic Commission, following in the footsteps of Carol Polis, who received her license several months earlier. Shain was asked to judge the September 29, 1977, fight between Muhammad Ali and Earnie Shavers at Madison Square Garden just a few hours before the fight began. This made her the first woman to be a boxing judge for a heavyweight championship bout, which felt to her "like when an opera singer sings at the Met".
Ali once asked her if she would be bothered if she got blood on her clothing while at a fight, and Shain responded "Well, it"s not my blood".
New York State Athletic Commissioner John R. Branca announced that he would have all three judges be women for the October 1984 middleweight title fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Mustafa Hamsho, saying "This fight needs some publicity". After Pat Petronelli suggested that "there"s going to be a lot of blood and I don"t want the three judges throwing up", Shain remained as the only woman to judge the fight.
A resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey, Shain died at age 81 on August 19, 1999, of cancer at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
