Undisputed middleweight champion Claressa Shields and former world champion Ivana Habazin squared-off and exchanged words at a pair of press conferences in Flint and Detroit on Wednesday, as they previewed their battle for the WBO junior middleweight world championship taking place October 5 on Showtime from Dort Federal Event Center in Flint, Michigan.
Shields will aim to make history as the fastest fighter in boxing, male or female, to become a three-division world champion, in her first professional fight in her hometown of Flint.
Claressa Shields: “I love this challenge, but you will not beat me in front of my family and friends. I’m going to destroy her. Don’t miss this, because this is going to be a knockout…she’s going to be in defense mode I think. I’ve seen how she fights. If she thinks she’s going to stand there blow for blow with me, she’s crazy. She has good movement and hand speed, but she has a lot of flaws.”
Ivana Habazin: “It doesn’t matter to me if the fight is in Flint, London, New York or anywhere. The ring is my home and what happens in there is the most important thing. I’m always the underdog and I like to be in that position. I won my title in my opponent’s hometown and I’m going to do it again…it’s going to be tough in her hometown to beat her on points, so I’m coming here to knock her out.”
Claressa looks out of shape. She needs 3 months minimum to get down to that weight. I would recommend a tune up.
This male/female comparison of Shields potentially being the fasted 3 division champ is 100% BS. All her fights in the past were quite meaningless, and so will all her future ones be. Female boxing is so shallow that almost any girl who is into boxing can still become a “champ”.
Its an undeniable fact that women’s boxing has almost zero depth. This may change one day, but that day is definitely not here yet. Until then, any comparisons to male boxing should be realistic – the difference is almost like day and night.
Haha exactly! High Five brother!
yeah I agree. I think Shields is talented, but her speed to the titles says less about her talent and more about how thin the female divisions are. Whenever she starts boasting about being the best ever, I just think to myself, if this record makes you the best ever, then female boxing has a long way to go.
It would nice for boxing if Ivana Habazin can pull it off with her teacher, James Bashir.
Claressa looks like she belongs to male competition.
Im going for Shields because she has so many haters and keeps winning. But I hope my guy James Bashir does well.
Also with so many divisions only a few pounds apart, it is pretty meaningless to be multiple division champion any more. Pretty meaningless anyway since you have to be a smaller weight to move up. The greatest heavyweight ever could never be a multi division champ.
We need Anne Wolf to come back and sort out this mess known as women’s boxing.