Hilary Fan (left) and her opponent at the Shanghai Fight Night in December. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

"Between 2,500 and 3,000 women have signed up for boxing classes with us, many in the last two years," says the company's founder, Shane Benis, who also runs the Golden Gloves Boxing Gym in the Jingan district of Shanghai.

Half those who use the gym are women, he says, from all walks of life, including office workers, businesswomen and fulltime mothers. Their average age is 29 and about half are Chinese.

"Boxing has become a very popular way for women to get into shape," Benis says."Countless celebrities are promoting the sport in the West, and this has directly affected the number of women here willing to give the sport a go."

Compared with eight or nine years ago thenumber is "staggering", he says, andhe is confident itwill continue to grow.

Numerous places in Shanghai such as Will's Gym, Tera Wellness Club and Tide-Caller have started to offer boxing classes. The craze has also spurred Gong Jing, a formerwomen's boxing champion, to set up Shanghai Princess Women's Boxing Club, believed to be the first women-only boxing gymin China.

And it is not just women in the likes of Shanghai and Beijing who are donning boxingg loves; they are doing the same in second tier cities such as Suzhou, which hosted its first white-collar boxing event in November.