Katie Taylor's father believes the quality of female boxers is declining because they no longer train with men.
Pete Taylor trained his daughter to become a Olympic gold medallist in the ring before Katie pursued a career in the pro ranks.
But while Katie, now a two-weight world champion, has helped to grow the women's game, Pete feels standards are dropping.
He said on his Instagram account: "People say girl's boxing has improved, I don't think it's improved.
"I think it's a little bit like female football. I think years ago it was a lot better because there were so few of the girls so they had to compete with boys to stand a chance.
"But now there is so much quantity with girls that girls are generally training with other girls.
"Girls are playing football with girls, so they come down to the one standard, whereas before they had to raise their standard to be able to compete with the boys.
"It's why Katie is where she is because there weren't many girls boxing when she was boxing. So she had to compete with the boys and that made her grow.
"It was the same when she played football for Ireland, all the time she grew up playing football with boys until the age of 15.
"She sparred with boys all the way up. Even on the senior team I never let her spar with girls.
"Then when you go and box against girls, or play football against girls, there is no disrespect to the girls but you are dropping down a standard.
"So your fighting is actually easier than your sparring.
"People are saying 'women's boxing is going to grow'. I would love to see it grow. It might grow in quantity but I don't think it will grow in quality unless you keep on training with boys."
