Mary Spencer
Three-time world champion from the Cape Croker First Nation
- Born
- December 12, 1984, Wiarton, Ontario, Canada
- Nationality
Canada- Height
- 180 cm (5′11″)
- Stance
- Orthodox
- Style
- Tall, fast-handed boxer
- Weight
- 66 kg, 75 kg, Light middleweight
- Active
- 2002–present
- Status
- Active · age 41
The record
Professional, since 2021 (last fight May 2026); her world titles came as an amateur record
3 world amateur titles (2005, 2008, 2010), 2011 Pan American Games gold
The story
ary Spencer, an Ojibwe from the Cape Croker First Nation, was born in Wiarton, Ontario, and did not start boxing until she was 17, at the Windsor Amateur Boxing Club under coach Charlie Stewart. Three years later she was world champion at 66 kg, and she won the title again in 2008. When the Olympics added women's boxing with only three weight classes, she moved up to 75 kg, won a third world title in 2010 and took the first women's boxing gold at the Pan American Games in 2011. A favourite for London 2012, she lost a 17-14 quarter-final to China's Li Jinzi, whom she had beaten for the 2010 world title. She turned pro in 2021 and held the WBA super welterweight belt from 2024 to 2025.
- World amateur champion, 66 kg (2005, 2008)
- World amateur champion, 75 kg (2010)
- Pan American Games champion, 75 kg (2011)
- WBA female super welterweight champion (2024–2025)
- Canadian Boxer of the Year (4 times by 2008)
- Indspire Award, sport (2014)
- Randy Starkman Award, Canadian Olympic Committee (2019)
Defining fights
- 2010WINvs Li Jinzi (World Championship final, Barbados, 75 kg)
- 2011WINvs Yenebier Guillen (Pan American Games final, Guadalajara)
- 2012LOSSvs Li Jinzi (London Olympic quarter-final, 17-14)
- 2024WINvs Naomi Mannes (UD 10, won interim WBA super welterweight title)
- 2025LOSSvs Mikaela Mayer (UD 10, lost WBA title)
Use your height the way Spencer's coach wanted at the 2012 Olympics: long, straight punches that keep a shorter pressure fighter at the end of your reach. When a smaller opponent starts walking you down, jab and step off at an angle instead of standing and trading.
