In the lead-up to her undisputed heavyweight title defense on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, Claressa Shields surprised everyone by avoiding the usual exchange of words with her opponent. Shields, dressed in an elegant pink fur coat, chose to praise Franchon Crews-Dezurn, who was sitting to her left.
Shields (17-0, 3 KOs) and Crews-Dezurn (10-2, 2 KOs) were rivals in amateur boxing before facing each other in their professional debuts in 2016, where Shields won by decision after four rounds. The fight on Sunday will be Shields’ second defense of the heavyweight title, which she won in February 2025 by unanimous decision over Danielle Perkins. It will also mark the beginning of Shields’ multi-fight association with Salita Promotions and Wynn Records, which she signed in November after considering free agency. The deal, worth $8 million, is the largest for a female boxer. After her defeat to Shields in 2016, Crews-Dezurn won her next nine fights and became the undisputed super middleweight champion. After losing the title in 2023, the Virginia native won her next two fights, defeating Shadasia Green in 2023 for the interim WBA and WBC super middleweight titles and making a successful title defense against Citlalli Ortiz in 2025. Shields and Crews-Dezurn promised to deliver an action-packed fight to the fans.With this heavyweight fight, it gives more notoriety to her name, to my name, to the event. We will be recorded in history together throughout our careers, from the amateurs to our professional debuts, to our upcoming heavyweight fight.
Claressa Shields
Shields, originally from Flint, Michigan, admitted that Crews-Dezurn was the first woman she investigated as a teenager while preparing for her first Olympic Games in 2012, when at 17 she became the first American woman to win a gold medal in women’s boxing. She also made history in 2016 when she obtained a second gold medal at the Rio Olympics at the age of 21. After using Crews-Dezurn as a driving force for many years, Shields prepares to continue her undefeated streak.This has been a long time in the making. I’ve always told Claressa that our paths were going to be intertwined as they are, and it’s beautiful because when we first met, women’s boxing wasn’t even in the Olympics, so we had the opportunity to step up in that way, and seeing both of our faces in beautiful artwork around the stadium, on the internet, means a lot to me.
Franchon Crews-Dezurn
She was my motivation back then. I found videos of her on YouTube. I watched her. And I knew since then that she hit hard. That’s what I noticed when I was 13 years old. I said: ‘That woman hits hard’.
Claressa Shields
