After becoming undisputed at 160 in April, 2-time gold medalist Claressa Shields is moving to 154 to become the fastest 3-division champ in boxing history. Should she win, she'll accomplish this in 10 fights, beating Vasyl Lomachenko's record of 12 fights. This fight will also be for the vacant WBO title and the WBC Diamond title. Claressa says she'll stay at 154 if she likes how she feels at the weight. She's not naturally this small, and keep in mind that there's more and stiffer competition in women's boxing as you go down in weight. She running TO the smoke, essentially.

As for the mechanics of the fight, we know what Shields can do. She can fight inside or outside, has good hand speed, great head movement, and almost always gets the better of exchanges, but who is Ivana Habazin? Well she has a lot of the same attributes but I'd say to a lesser extent. However, this is similar to the Shawn Porter situation where we're gonna see the best version of her. You can already see VAST improvements in her game over the past 6 years or so. 1st Lady Cecilia Braekhus defeated her by decision in 2014 but hasn't wanted to rematch her. This fight won't look like Shields' fight with Christina Hammer fight. Hammer didn't like fighting inside. Ivana counters *very* well, likes to fight on the inside, and is gonna let her hands go if it gets rough for her. She ain't goin' out like Hammer. This is gonna be good, possibly great fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKWi4APxSDA

When Claressa mentions Ivana calling her fat, she's referencing this:
https://twitter.com/IvanaHabazin/status/1141879894995079168
This fight was supposed to happen August 17th but was postponed due to Claressa dislocating her knee. Ivana didn't buy that and accused Claressa of faking an injury while she lost more weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMNhx_QP6Z4

Watch out for this guy at 147. Spence and Crawford better get their business handled before this dude becomes a contender. He has potential to beat both of them. I think he'd beat Errol right now (he said a couple of months ago that Errol isn't anything special to him). He and Crawford would be a brilliant fight... but I'll let the young man go through the process. He was out of the ring for about 9 months until August, but he's back in action. Pay attention. You could be witnessing the rise of the next super talent.

pt.1 (mostly her origin story)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhy4OAnRQPk

pt.2 (road to undisputed at 160)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYYNDUENBWg

pt.3 (training for this fight and inspiring Flint)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgCT-CLRQFI

I was hoping there would be an episode about Habazin, but it's just a doc on Shields. Ivana isn't coming to lay down tho. Here's a quote from her at the last press conference:
“I didn’t come here to lose. I came here to win. I’m excited to see how happy everyone here is for Claressa, because they’re going to be sad on Saturday when I win.”
I love the confidence. Gonna be a good scrap.

Fight off

Ivana Habazin's trainer, James Ali Bashir got into a shouting match with Claressa Shields' sister at the weigh-in and later got knocked out by some dude in attendance. Here's the footage of the weigh-m altercation and the post KO scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1yg6AyI7I

This dude must not know where he is. He's an out-of-towner if FLINT, MICHIGAN. He's putting his hands all in her face, saying he'll "kncock that bitch out", and then he keeps antagonizing her even after they were broken up. Why, my dude? Why are you begging to be smashed? I don't condone him getting KO'd but... know where you are. Claressa says it wasn't anyone from her team. Here's footage of her talking about the situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq61cyNdWQ4

>Ivana Habazin's trainer, James Ali Bashir got into a shouting
>match with Claressa Shields' sister at the weigh-in and later
>got knocked out by some dude in attendance. Here's the
>footage of the weigh-m altercation and the post KO scene:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1yg6AyI7I
>






>This dude must not know where he is. He's an out-of-towner if
>FLINT, MICHIGAN. He's putting his hands all in her face,
>saying he'll "kncock that bitch out", and then he keeps
>antagonizing her even after they were broken up. Why, my
>dude? Why are you begging to be smashed? I don't condone him
>getting KO'd but... know where you are. Claressa says it
>wasn't anyone from her team. Here's footage of her talking
>about the situation:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq61cyNdWQ4


I mean Flint and Detroit are not the same place, but let’s not chalk this up to some weird regional shit. bashir has lived and worked in Detroit since the mid 70s he isn’t some white or European “out of towner”

The back and forth shit talking that was going on was not beyond any we’ve seen in heated fight buildups. He said wildly disrespectful things and wildly disrespectful things were said back to him. At the end of the day as much as we’d like our McGregors and Mayorgas to get KTFO, we usually want it in the ring— not via a blindsided sucker punch.

That shit ain’t cool, period. Plus this man is 70+ years old.
He can probably still handle himself but if you want to fight him, square up. I hope whoever did this feels the full extent of punishment.

And shields trying to call Habazin out for not fighting right now is fuckin laughable. She’s in her feelings right now cause it’s happened but I hope she walks that back. If anyone’s main trainer gets KTFO hours before the fight, they shouldn’t be fighting just off GP. Then you later in all the other shit— the emotions, the fact that he’s in critical condition and needs facial reconstruction surgery— not a good look for shields. She should’ve just said she feels bad and left it at that— and if it’s her peoples, she needs to handle that.

What I mean is he's coming to Flint as the opposition to the hometown fighter... their darling. He trains Habazin in Croatia. He's the "other nigga" in this situation. Plus you in a frustrated city where the people still ain't got clean water. Chiiiiill my dude. Of course what happened to him isn't cool on any level, and of course I'm not remotely implying it was. Like you said tho, homie is 70, so maybe he don't realize young folks now got zero respect for that. But antagonizing even after yall separated and the incident should be over, saying "I'll knock that bitch out"? Too much bruh.

As for saving it for the ring, yes of course that's what we all wanted. I bought a month's subscription to Showtime for this shit! lol. Plus this is the 2nd time this fight has been postponed.

Yeah I agree on the idea that Shields shoulda just said she feels bad. I know she's thinking of how she would handle it, and her mentality would probably be that she's REALLY gonna beat the girl's ass now b/c of what happened to her trainer, but has to realize people cope differently and Habazin's way of coping with this is totally justified.

Good looks on Ennis. Hadn't heard of him but will be checking for him

No problem fam. If you can find his fight against Armando Alvarez, he was in there showing out on dude.

https://www.facebook.com/100022737201848/posts/545022539598981?sfns=mo

Hey everybody what’s up, the last 24 hours I’ve had time to reflect on what happened and I want you guys to hear it personally from me.

My heart is with Coach Ali, a coach who has given his heart to this sport and to so many fighters over a long career. My heart is with Ivana Habazin, whose courage, discipline and heart were evident in the way she trained for this day and traveled a long distance to realize my dream of fighting in my hometown of Flint. My heart is with Boxing fans, especially fans of women’s boxing. My heart is with all the female boxers who have struggled for equality in this sport - and the world . And with those who have fought with all of their heart to elevate women’s boxing and open doors for the young women behind us.

My heart is with my city of Flint, a city desperately in need of some good news— desperately in need of a moment of relief from the every day chaos and trauma of living with poverty and violence. My heart is with the team at Showtime and the hundreds of people who invested in my dream and stood behind me when I desired to give back to my hometown.

What happened yesterday is inexcusable. And unbearable. It should not have happened. And, as much as i want to wake up from this nightmare, this is what we all are facing today. This is the reality for my town of Flint, and in cities across the country- and around the world.. We are all living with trauma. We live in and among mental illness and addiction. We live with a desperate hope for something better. We struggle, we fail, we get back up and try again. We can take responsibility for ourselves and ask others and the Lord to forgive us. We can set our dream in motion and still, one person, one split second, can unravel it all.

I am still sorting through what happened yesterday and reflecting on my role in what lead up to this attack. I did not see what happened and am relying, like so many of you, on what I have heard. Despite the videos that are out, the actions that took place against Coach Ali was not right. I do not stand for that and do not in any way justify what happened no matter what he said! I stand with Coach Ali and Ivana Habazin and I also understand their stand on our fight. This one person’s actions should not be a reflection of the people of Flint, Michigan who work so hard to better themselves each and every day.

I am praying to the Lord for guidance, as always. I ask for your prayers and support to help make something positive come from this tragedy.

I ask you to join me in praying for Coach Ali, For Ivana Habazin and their families. I ask you to join me in prayers for the city of Flint, and for people around the world who are hurting and who do not know what to do with that pain.

(picture of Shields and Habazin hugging)

Props.

Just made a deep deep fan for life

After the 1st round, gotdamn this boy is special.
And only 22... scary for the 147 division.
*edit* welp, it's over in 3. Fernandez got fucking assaulted in the corner... got back up and then just quit as soon as Ennis walked toward him a la Duran vs Leonard. Fernandez seemed to have a chin, but he was just hiding pain well. The boy was getting killed in there. Boots is a powerful puncher, so it was only a matter of time.
147 is on notice.

Because she said it wasn't anyone from her team, and she's right, because her brother isn't part of her team. He isn't on payroll and wasn't even on the stage in any of the footage.