On Saturday, July 27, skilled boxing celebrity and present Undisputed Middleweight World Champion Claressa “GWOAT” Shields of Flint, Mich., might 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 in opposition to WBC Ladies’s Heavyweight World Champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse of Quebec, Canada. The vacant WBO Gentle Heavyweight Championship can even be on the road on July 27, as each primary occasion fighters purpose to unify 175-pound titles in a really particular version of “Large Time Boxing USA” at Little Caesars Enviornment in Detroit that may air reside on premier world 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 evening of boxing introduced by Salita Promotions and 313 Presents at downtown Detroit’s world-class venue and residential of the Detroit Purple Wings and Detroit Pistons.
Tickets for the reside occasion are on sale now and might be bought at Ticketmaster.com and the XFINITY Field Workplace at Little Caesars Enviornment.
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 file for changing 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 lessons, as she additionally received the unified WBC and IBF feminine tremendous middleweight titles in 2017.
In her record-breaking beginner 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 determination over Maricela Cornejo in June 2023. The wildly profitable occasion was the primary boxing match ever held at Little Caesars Enviornment.
“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 deliver one other entertaining struggle to Little Caesars Enviornment. Final time 12,000 followers crammed the world, and this time we’re going to elevate the roof off the constructing! This can be a important and distinctive struggle the place I’m shifting up two weight lessons in opposition to a really robust champion in my quest to turn out to be World Champion in my fourth weight division. It’s an thrilling time for ladies’s sports activities, and I thank DAZN for offering a world platform for ladies’s boxing. I plan to do what I do greatest: deliver that GWOAT vitality and proceed placing ladies’s boxing on the map.”
Lepage-Joanisse discovered boxing as a teen in 2009 and rapidly realized she had a expertise for the candy science. By 2013, Lepage-Joanisse was invited to affix 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 file 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 almost 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 determination a 12 months later.
“It would not matter to me whether or not it is 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 method.”
“From the start of her profession, Claressa has been on a quest to make her story part of historical past,” stated Dmitriy Salita. “This struggle is one in every of Claressa’s hardest challenges, shifting 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 every of boxing’s historic properties. There isn’t a higher venue for this epic showdown than the attractive, world-class Little Caesars Enviornment.”
“With each struggle, Claressa Shields continues to boost the bar for ladies’s boxing,” stated Mark Taffet, President of Mark Taffet Media. “With historical past and legacy on the road, Claressa embraces the problem of shifting 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 reside leisure firm, 313 Presents is happy to deliver boxing again to Little Caesars Enviornment 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 12 months’s occasion proved monumental as we glance to construct upon the superb leisure and alive moments we deliver 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 evening of boxing.”