Aileen Eaton

Aileen Eaton (1909-1987) was a boxing promoter who was influential in the United States' west coast's boxing scene for five decades. Eaton was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She attended Los Angeles High School.

Eaton's husband, Cal Eaton, was an important boxing promoter in Los Angeles. Aileen Eaton got involved in her husband's business in 1942. During her career as a promoter, she would get involved with big name promoters and fighters, sometimes travelling to other states in search of business. Eaton is the mother of Martial Arts legend Gene LeBell, who rose through the ranks of MMA and Pro Wrestling to become one of they most respected fighters of all time.

In 1966, her husband Cal died. Nicknamed "The Redhead", she took over presidency of her husband's company and went on to stage more than 10,000 boxing bouts and as many wrestling matches at the L.A. Olympic Auditorium, promoting such fighters as Floyd Patterson, Danny Lopez, Carlos Palomino, Joe Frazier and George Foreman before she retired in 1980. When alongside her husband, she had also helped promote fights of Sugar Ray Robinson and Carmen Basilio, among others. Eaton was also the first fight promoter of Cassius Clay Muhammad Ali, dubbing him in true wrestling schtick style, in an early press junket, with a large white button as "the greatest", a title he initially resisted but later embraced with gusto.

Eaton's son, Gene Lebell, went on to become a martial arts champion and business owner himself.

When Eaton died in 1987, she probably couldn't imagine the impact she had in women's sports: After being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2002, as the first woman in the hall, many women athletes and feminists alike began to see her as a symbol of their causes.