This Friday night, the only American 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist in boxing, Claressa Shields, is fighting to be undisputed champion in a SECOND weight class. She already won all the belts in the 160 lb divison. Now she'll be going for all the belts at 154. She's already won titles at 168, 160, and 154. She was dropped by Showtime, even though they put on much worse matches by men who don't fight as hard or take their craft as serious. The success of this event would be HUGE, not only for Claressa, but for womens boxing overall. It would prove that women are worth every bit of marketing and promotion as men. Women work just as hard, if not harder, at their craft.

The fight will be broadcast on FITE TV. They have an app and website. The fight card is $29.99
https://www.fite.tv/watch/shields-vs-dicaire/2p8qn/

Recently, Claressa declared that she's going to fight MMA as well. She says she doesn't get the recognition she deserves for her accomplishments in boxing. She calls herself the "GWOAT" (greatest woman of all time). MMA fans would always troll her, saying Amanda Nunes is the real GWOAT, so Claressa plans to start in the Pro Fight League, and then transition over to UFC to fight Nunes. I wouldn't advise this, as it never seems to go well, but if she's able to pull it off, she'll be arguably the greatest combat sports participant ever.

Anyway, order boxing match this Friday, March 5th if you can. You can order any time. https://www.fite.tv/watch/shields-vs-dicaire/2p8qn/

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/atlanta-dream-takeover-montgomery-wnba-gottesdiener-loeffler

Former Atlanta Dream guard Renee Montgomery has become the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) franchise after a consortium’s bid to buy the team was approved.

Real estate investor Larry Gottesdiener will be the majority owner of the Dream, leading an investment group that also includes Suzanne Abair, president of Northland Investment. Gottesdiener founded Northland Investment in 1991.

The deal sees former Republican senator Kelly Loeffler sell her 49 per cent stake in the Dream, with former co-owner Mary Brock also moving on. Loeffler has been under pressure to sell her shares in the franchise after stating her opposition to the league’s racial justice initiatives, resulting in direct clashes with players on the Dream and across the league.

Montgomery confirmed she would play an active role with Abair in the leadership of the team.

“I’m going to be working with Suzanne and she’s going to lead the way,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery sat out the 2020 season to focus on social justice issues and recently announced her retirement from the league after 11 seasons and two WNBA championships.

“I think it’s great that Renee has stepped up after she retired from playing the game to continue having an impact on the game,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “I’ve seen her strong work ethic. I’ve seen her advocacy and knowledge of the game and I’m sure that’s going to be an asset to Larry and Suzanne and a huge benefit to the team.”

The approval of the takeover by the WNBA and NBA board of governors is expected to pass without issue and be unanimous.

Gottesdiener confirmed the team will remain in Atlanta. He said: “This is an Atlanta asset. The Dream isn’t going anywhere.”

The financial terms of the sale were not made public, but the sale of the New York Liberty — a bigger-market outfit — saw Joe Tsai pay between US$10 million and US$14 million in 2019.

The end of Loeffler’s time as co-owner of the franchise was first revealed in January when the WNBA confirmed that a takeover deal was near.

Loeffler has been fiercely criticised since writing a letter to Engelbert objecting to the league’s decision to promote the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement during the 2020 season.

‘We need less – not more – politics in sports,’ wrote Loeffler, who added that BLM was ‘a very divisive organisation based on Marxist principles’.

The Dream players called on Loeffler to sell her 49 per cent stake, before then endorsing her Senate election opponent, Raphael Warnock. Loeffler was defeated by her Democrat rival in the runoff in Georgia’s US Senate special election on 5th January.

Talk of the Dream’s potential sale first emerged last summer, when ESPN reported that team president Chris Sienko and former majority owner Brock – who is married to former Coca-Cola chairman and chief executive John Brock – had been providing financial information to potential buyers.

All women PPV with Holly Holm on the unofficial scorecard. Historic stuff.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/sports/baseball/bianca-smith-red.html

I grew up with her family. Dated her aunt in HS. Had no idea when I first read the headline on ESPN because she doesn’t have the same last name as her mom.

When Bianca Smith landed a job as a minor league coach in the Boston Red Sox organization, becoming the first Black woman to coach professional baseball, she thought about her mother.

Her mom died of cancer in 2013 and would have been proud of her daughter’s achievement. But also furious. Dawn Patterson had particularly strong feelings about the Red Sox.

She despised them.

Patterson was a lifelong Yankees fan and hated their rivals so much that when Smith won tickets to Red Sox games while in college at Dartmouth — awarded to students who attended the most varsity sporting events — she would get angry that her daughter would even consider the trip.

“Mom, but these are, like, free baseball tickets,” Smith remembered saying, emphasizing that the offer was too good to pass up...



its too long for me to swipe on my phone but the story is amazing

I never imagined back in 2013 when I heard about her mom passing that this was a possibility.

You feel for the family and the kids and wonder how they will navigate life without their mother and to see greatness and resilience like this is just amazing.

Black women are awesome!

But I'm just not into fighting or combat sports as I guess they're called now. I don't like watching violence, although I do watch football. But I rationalize that I suppose.

But women are doing well with the few opportunities they are given. I just read the other day that the Washington Football Team promoted a Black female coach to the role of Assistant Running Back coaches. She is the first paid female coach in the NFL, if I read the story correctly. You may be able to find that story on espn.com.

And then you have the WNBA players doing big things on and off the court. The flex of the Atlanta Dream players on the former Senator of Georgia was a boss move if there ever was one. I know some of the Dream are white but for the team to basically use their leverage to get rid of an owner showing toxic levels of racism is as big of a power move as I can think of in sports. Even when the Clippers were taken away from Donald Sterling, that event was driven more by public reaction and exhaustion of patience by the owners than the players' anger at their owner.