Career
Couch has since become a boxing promoter. Born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, Couch was expelled from her school in Blackpool and thereafter lived "a life of booze, drugs and street fighting". At the age of 26 she saw a television documentary about women"s boxing and decided to try lieutenant
In her first official fight, a Muay Thai match, she defeated a policewoman, about which she said "it was brilliant to flatten one and get paid for it".
She currently resides in Bristol. The British Boxing Board of Control initially refused to grant Couch a professional licence on the sole ground that she was a woman, and argued that PMS made women too unstable to box.
Claiming sexual discrimination and supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission, Couch managed to have this decision overturned by a tribunal in March 1998. However, some criticism followed as the British Medical Association called this result "a demented extension of equal opportunities".
Couch would later seek the right to fight a male opponent, but was unsuccessful.
Of this, she said Going into the ring against a man wouldn"t bother medical I spar with blokes seven days a week so it"s not as if it would be a new experience. lieutenant would mean an awful lot to me to appear at Wembley.
Couch"s first defence of her title was against noted female boxer Andrea DeShong, who was stopped in seven rounds in New Orleans, Louisiana in March 1997.
In September 2003 Staples Center, Los Angeles, Couch lost on points over eight rounds to the highly regarded Lucia Rijker of Holland. Her last fight, against Anne Sophie Mathis on 8 December 2007, resulted in a loss by technical knockout.
She announced her retirement on 1 December 2008 and said she intended to continue as a boxing promoter. At the time, she said "Boxing has been my life for a long time and it will always will be, but I"m not going to miss getting my head smashed in." Couch"s overall professional record was 28 wins (9 KOs), 11 losses.
In 2008 Couch competed in the reincarnation of Superstars.
Couch long supported the inclusion of women"s boxing in the Olympic Games, saying "lieutenant"s no more dangerous for a woman to box than for a manitoba The Olympics would encourage more girls into gyms where hopefully they would be welcomed." On 12 August 2009 it was reported that the International Olympic Committee appeared set to include the sport in the 2012 Summer Olympics. In December 2009, Couch promoted a competition at the Marriott Hotel, Bristol.
Couch also has her own YouTube channel which features regular interviews with people involved in boxing.