Women's boxing is one of the fastest growing sports in the world right now.

Although there are reports of women boxing dating all the way back to the 18th century, it is only relatively recently that the sport has become a viable option for a lot of people.

The 2012 Olympics is seen as a major turning point for women's boxing, when British fighter Nicola Adams won the gold medal on home soil, leading to an explosion in popularity. Adams won the first ever women's boxing gold, with 2012 the first year the sport was in the Olympics.

Laila Ali, daughter of the great Muhammad Ali, was among the first high-profile female boxers but she hung up her gloves a decade ago. Jacqui Frazier-Lyde and Irichelle Duran - Joe Frazier and Roberto Duran respectively - are among the other offspring of famous male boxers who have fought to a decent standard.

A gaping void at the top of the sport needed big new personalities to come and fill, with the likes of Adams, Ireland's Katie Taylor and the brilliant Claressa Shields coming through. It all points to a bright future for women's boxing, but how did it get to this position?

The history of women's boxing

In order to understand how women's boxing became as popular as it is today, it is necessary to assess the history of the sport.

Women have boxed for just as long as men, but in terms of competitive action it is only relatively recently that female boxers have gone into the ring.

Boxing was seen as a sport for men only for far too long, leaving women who could have been developed into great fighters watching on from the sidelines.

But in the 1980s things finally started to change, with the fitness movement spreading around the world. Boxing was suddenly seen as one of the best ways for women to keep fit.

Participation figures have been on the rise ever since, although it was only in the 1990s that boxing organisations began to recognise the women's side of the sport.

A decision was then made to include women's boxing in the 2012 Olympics - a big turning point.

Why the 2012 Olympics mattered

The 2012 Olympics is regularly said to have been a massive moment for women's boxing.

Women all over the world were able to watch fellow females compete in the ring on just the same terms as their male counterparts.

Although Olympic boxing is at amateur level, both in the men's and women's game there are countless examples of fighters who have subsequently turned professional.

This all meant women could see that boxing was a sport they could try out, leading to an immediate rise in the number of women competing, whether on a serious basis with the intent of fighting, or merely as a way to keep fit.

Nicola Adams, as one of Great Britain's home gold medalists at the 2012 Olympics - which were held in London - became one of the icons of the sport and a figurehead for women's boxing.

"I am always being told by people that I meet or others that contact me via Twitter that I have inspired them to be active and take up the sport so it is brilliant to see that this is translating into real results amongst so many different age groups," Adams said back in 2013.

"It is really important that we get more women doing exercise and being active and those that have taken up boxing or boxing training will definitely find that it has a really positive impact on their health, fitness and well-being."

Katie Taylor also won gold at the 2012 Olympics and although she lost in the quarter-finals four years later that success was the springboard for her career. Ireland's Taylor has recorded half a dozen victories since turning professional and she has her first world title bout later in October, when she will come up against Argentine fighter Anahi Sanchez.

The hope for the women's boxing industry is that the likes of Adams and Taylor can become global stars in the same way that the likes of Ronda Rousey did in UFC.

What needs to change to grow women's boxing further?

According to Katie Taylor, one of the things that could be holding women's boxing back is the length of the rounds fought in the professional arena.

Whereas men box for three minutes at a time, with 12 rounds at the top of the sport, this is cut to just two minutes when women go into the ring.

Taylor believes this has an impact on how female fighters approach their bout, with longer rounds having the potential to be more exciting for fans.

"Definitely if you had three-minute rounds you would have a better chance of stopping these girls, for sure," Taylor said earlier this year. "It does make for a different fight as well. 

"We spar three-minute rounds all the time. I'm happy to go three-minute rounds. I think you would see a lot more knockouts in the women's game then."

Whether or not Taylor gets her wish for longer rounds remains to be seen, but there is no doubt women's boxing could benefit from some tweaks to ensure its popularity continues to rise.

While it is a good thing that fighters like Taylor have had their fights televised, bringing the sport to a large audience, the profile of the women's boxing in the media remains relatively low. And as a result, the money that is made by female fighters is still dwarfed by their male counterparts.

Perhaps for that to change, what women's boxing needs is a big breakout star in the vein of Rousey, who almost single-handedly pushed UFC into becoming a household name sport.

Some fighters such as the Olympian Marlen Esparza have used their image to get ahead, posing in sexy photoshoots and attracting big-name sponsors, but this is less ideal and not a path everyone can choose to go down, even if they wanted to.

Benefits and advantages of women's boxing

A lot of women who start boxing competitively first took up the sport as a fitness regimen. Boxing is a full-body workout like no other, while the competitive edge is attractive to a lot of women. There are few other outlets as useful for working out frustration than sparring too.

Fighting is a broad spectrum, however, and women's boxing makes up just one strands. UFC has become phenomenally popular in the last decade, prompted by the likes of breakout stars Ronda Rousey and Taylor's Irish compatriot Conor McGregor.

But boxing remains the pinnacle of the fight game, as seen by McGregor's determination to get into the ring with the great Floyd Mayweather. McGregor lost, but made a fortune, and his profile is now higher than ever.

But as for women's boxing itself - where can it go in the future? The 2012 Olympics has helped women's boxing to establish itself in the public consciousness, but there is a long way to go.

The future of women's boxing

Getting more female bouts on to the under cards of major men's fights is one way forward for the sport, with talented United States starlet Claressa Shields having already fought on the undercard of Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward's pay-per-view fight last year.

But while having women's fights on under cards can help to bring the sport to a new audience, it is also important that it can stand on its own two feet in the future.

Big name boxers are needed if that is going to happen, with the likes of Taylor and Shields showing the way forward for the sport. It is not impossible to imagine that those two fighters could lead the way for women's boxing for the next decade or so.

"This is a new era, and that's no disrespect to Christy Martin or Lucia Rijker or Laila [Ali]. But the women of this generation are just different," says Shields, who goes by the nickname T-Rex. "And me? I'm one-of-a-kind. You only get one of me every century."

Shields certainly does not lack confidence - the future of women's boxing is in safe hands.