DETROIT – On Saturday, July 27, skilled boxing celebrity and present Undisputed Middleweight World Champion Claressa “GWOAT” Shields of Flint, Mich., can be trying so as to add to her storied profession but once more as she rises two weight lessons to vie for a world title in a fourth division towards WBC Ladies’s Heavyweight World Champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse of Quebec, Canada. The vacant WBO Gentle Heavyweight Championship may also be on the road on July 27, as each important 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 residing legend in her dwelling state, and Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) will headline a blockbuster night time of boxing introduced by Salita Promotions and 313 Presents at downtown Detroit’s world-class venue and residential of the Detroit Pink Wings and Detroit Pistons.
Tickets for the stay occasion are on sale now and might be bought at Ticketmaster.com and the XFINITY Field Workplace at Little Caesars Area.
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 gained the undisputed feminine gentle middleweight world championship in March 2021. As well as, Shields holds the document for turning into a two- and three-division world champion within the fewest skilled fights ever and owns the excellence of having held titles in three weight lessons, as she additionally gained the unified WBC and IBF feminine tremendous middleweight titles in 2017.
In her record-breaking beginner boxing profession, Shields gained 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 lady 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 choice 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.” stated Shields. “I’m excited to convey one other entertaining combat 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! It is a vital and distinctive combat the place I’m transferring up two weight lessons towards a really powerful champion in my quest to change 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 worldwide platform for girls’s boxing. I plan to do what I do greatest: convey that GWOAT vitality and proceed placing ladies’s boxing on the map.”
Lepage-Joanisse discovered boxing as an adolescent in 2009 and shortly realized she had a expertise for the candy science. By 2013, Lepage-Joanisse was invited to hitch Quebec’s provincial beginner boxing workforce and later, the Canadian nationwide workforce from 2014 to 2016. Lepage-Joanisse went on to win the Canadian ladies’s heavyweight title in 2014 and 2015 and completed her profitable beginner profession with a document 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 check optimistic 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 gained the WBC Heavyweight World Championship by defeating Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal by unanimous choice a yr later.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether or not it’s Claressa or another person. My life is all about challenges,” stated Lepage-Joanisse. “I’ve all the time confronted them head-on, and I intend to maintain it that approach.”
“From the start of her profession, Claressa has been on a quest to make her story part of historical past,” stated Dmitriy Salita. “This combat is certainly one of 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, certainly one of boxing’s historic properties. There is no such thing as a higher venue for this epic showdown than the gorgeous, world-class Little Caesars Area.”
“With each combat, Claressa Shields continues to boost the bar for girls’s boxing,” stated Mark Taffet, President of Mark Taffet Media. “With historical past and legacy on the road, Claressa embraces the problem of transferring up two weight lessons 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 happy to convey boxing again to Little Caesars Area in partnership with Salita Promotions,” stated 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 wonderful 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.”
Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Government Author, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a ardour for Fight Sports activities and likewise a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s additionally a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.
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