On Saturday, July 27, skilled boxing celebrity and present Undisputed Middleweight World Champion Claressa “GWOAT” Shields of Flint, Mich., will probably be wanting so as to add to her storied profession but once more as she rises two weight courses to vie for a world title in a fourth division in opposition to WBC Girls’s Heavyweight World Champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse of Quebec, Canada. The vacant WBO Gentle Heavyweight Championship may even be on the road on July 27, as each essential occasion fighters purpose to unify 175-pound titles in a really particular version of “Large Time Boxing USA” at Little Caesars Area in Detroit that may air stay on premier international sports activities platform DAZN.
Shields (14-0, 2 KOs), a dwelling legend in her house state, and Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) will headline a blockbuster night time of boxing offered by Salita Promotions and 313 Presents at downtown Detroit’s world-class venue and residential of the Detroit Purple Wings and Detroit Pistons.
Shields is the reigning WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO Middleweight World Champion and is the one ladies’s boxer in historical past to carry Undisputed World titles in two divisions, having additionally received the undisputed feminine gentle middleweight world championship in March 2021. As well as, Shields holds the report for turning into a two- and three-division world champion within the fewest skilled fights ever and owns the excellence of getting held titles in three weight courses, as she additionally received the unified WBC and IBF feminine tremendous middleweight titles in 2017.
In her record-breaking novice boxing profession, Shields received gold medals within the ladies’s middleweight division on the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, making her the primary American boxer to win consecutive Olympic medals and the primary American girl to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. In her most up-to-date boxing look, Shields defended her middleweight belts by scoring a unanimous 10-round resolution over Maricela Cornejo in June 2023. The wildly profitable occasion was the primary boxing match ever held at Little Caesars Area.
“The Queen of Boxing is again! I’m so excited to return to the ring, particularly after my MMA victory in February.” mentioned Shields. “I’m excited to convey one other entertaining battle to Little Caesars Area. Final time 12,000 followers crammed the world, and this time we’re going to raise the roof off the constructing! This can be a important and distinctive battle the place I’m transferring up two weight courses in opposition to a really robust champion in my quest to turn into World Champion in my fourth weight division. It’s an thrilling time for girls’s sports activities, and I thank DAZN for offering a world platform for girls’s boxing. I plan to do what I do greatest: convey that GWOAT power and proceed placing ladies’s boxing on the map.”
Lepage-Joanisse discovered boxing as a teen in 2009 and shortly realized she had a expertise for the candy science. By 2013, Lepage-Joanisse was invited to hitch Quebec’s provincial novice boxing group and later, the Canadian nationwide group from 2014 to 2016. Lepage-Joanisse went on to win the Canadian ladies’s heavyweight title in 2014 and 2015 and completed her profitable novice profession with a report of 17-4.
Lepage-Joanisse turned skilled in March 2016 and, after simply three fights, unsuccessfully challenged Mexico’s Alejandra Jimenez for her WBC World Championship in 2017. Jimenez would later take a look at constructive for using unlawful substances. A heartbroken Lepage-Joanisse left the game for practically six years after struggling her solely profession loss however returned to combating in March 2023, and received the WBC Heavyweight World Championship by defeating Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal by unanimous resolution a yr later.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether or not it’s Claressa or another person. My life is all about challenges,” mentioned Lepage-Joanisse. “I’ve at all times confronted them head-on, and I intend to maintain it that manner.”
“From the start of her profession, Claressa has been on a quest to make her story part of historical past,” mentioned Dmitriy Salita. “This battle is one in all Claressa’s hardest challenges, transferring up two weight divisions to problem the present Heavyweight World Champion. It’s ‘Claressa vs. Vanessa’ for the unified world title in Detroit, one in all boxing’s historic properties. There isn’t a higher venue for this epic showdown than the attractive, world-class Little Caesars Area.”
“With each battle, Claressa Shields continues to lift the bar for girls’s boxing,” mentioned Mark Taffet, President of Mark Taffet Media. “With historical past and legacy on the road, Claressa embraces the problem of transferring up two weight courses in her quest to win a world title in her fourth weight division. It’s a actual privilege to be by her facet on her game-changing journey.”
“As Detroit’s premier stay leisure firm, 313 Presents is worked up to convey boxing again to Little Caesars Area in partnership with Salita Promotions,” mentioned Howard Handler, President of 313 Presents. “Detroit’s boxing scene has a wealthy historical past that has produced and embraced quite a few champions and final yr’s occasion proved monumental as we glance to construct upon the superb leisure and alive moments we convey to our world-class venues. Claressa Shields proved she will be able to pack a punch in addition to a crowd. July 27 ought to ship one other action-packed night time of boxing.”
Tickets for the stay occasion are on sale now and could be bought at Ticketmaster.com and the XFINITY Field Workplace at Little Caesars Area.
