Cai Zongju

Cai Zongju (Chinese: 蔡宗菊, born 27 September 1991) is a Chinese former professional boxer. She has held the IBF and IBO female minimumweight titles.

Scouted by the Chinese state sports system, Cai was sent a sports boarding school and trained in freestyle wrestling before switching to kickboxing, Muay Thai and finally boxing.^[4]

She made her professional boxing debut in September 2014, defeating Li Yun Ting in Kunming, China.^[4]

Cai challenged IBF female minimumweight champion Etsuko Tada at the Cotai Arena in Macau on 30 January 2017, winning by split decision.^[4][5][6]

She successfully defended her title via unanimous decision against Gretchen Abaniel at Macau East Asian Games Dome on 28 October 2017, before vacating the championship.^[4]

Cai became a two-time world champion by defeating Ana Victoria Polo on a unanimous decision for the vacant IBO female minimumweight title in Haikou, China, on 9 June 2018.^[4]

She then switched to amateur boxing and competed for China at the 2019 Women's World Boxing Championships in Russia, where she was eliminated in the quarter-finals.^[4]