Claressa Shields, the undisputed heavyweight champion and arguably the world’s best female fighter, is a free agent boxer.
The 30-year-old has spent her professional career signed with Dmitriy Salita’s Promotions from Sabata but announced after her latest win on Saturday that the deal had finished.
Shields will be a highly attractive prospect for any promoter because he is a three-weight unbeaten champion who is unbeaten and one of the best talkers in the sport.
15, 000 people watched her recent fight against Lani Daniels at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Women made up 71% of the tickets purchased.
In 2022, Shields and bitter rival Savannah Marshall sold more than 15 000 tickets to London’s O2 Arena, drawing a maximum TV audience of 2 million.
The minimum purse requirement for MVP & is £3.8 million.
Despite some verbal altercations with Shields, Jake Paul’s MVP seems to fit the bill.
Shields objected to the MVP designation of Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3 as the women’s pound-for-pound number one.
Shields asserts that position by remaining undefeated in 17 fights. With lightweight world champion Terri Harper joining the MVP with a number of the best fighters in the world, including many of Shields’ natural rivals,
Marshall of Hartlepool and Shadasia Green, the newly crowned unified super-middleweight champion, also share the title. Marshall has already defeated Shields, who was a former world champion at the weight. In 2012, Marshall is still the only woman to defeat Shields in the amateurs.
Shields claims she is ready to speak with all advertisers.
“I’ll leave if their vision and mine don’t align,” I said. On Ariel x Ade: The Boxing Show, Shields claimed that he had no cigarette ties to any of these individuals.
Shields’ promotional options in the United States may be limited despite being American.
Only two women are currently employed by Top Rank. Top Rank, the nation’s top boxing promoter, has no current TV contract since it ended its relationship with ESPN last Saturday.
There isn’t a single female fighter signed to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).
In recent years, it is MVP who has provided the biggest platforms for female fighters in the US. Six million people tuned in to watch the all-female card on Netflix in July. According to reports, Taylor and Serrano reportedly paid $14 million for the event.
Shields herself claims to make at least £3.8 million per fight. That is a lot to start with, and most promoters around the world are probably not interested in that number.
The option for the UK

Despite Shields’ previous successes in the UK, this seems the least likely choice.
Matchroom is undoubtedly a significant player in women’s boxing.
Chantelle Cameron, Queensberry’s biggest star, was declared the company’s MVP earlier this year. Ellie Scotney, a long-time Matchroom star, also opted to become a member of MVP.
Shields attracts a lot of people in the UK when she and her dance partner are on the right side of the table. Boxxer, her previous promoter, has a difficult future.
Shields might take on the opponent next.
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There is always the option Shields re-signs with Promotions from Sabata. She could also take a leaf out of Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s books and look at short-term deals or fight-by-fight agreements.
She has been linked to fighting boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila Ali. Salita was the one who made it clear that Wynn Records had a £11 million offer on the table.
Ali retired in 2007, and the fight would be more circus-than-competitive at 47 years old. Boxing is no stranger to that, though.
Shields can continue to weigh herself or she could slam herself in the air. She has won four weight class world championships.
When she won her most recent fight, veteran and unified middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn was present and had anticipated a final-minute cancellation of the fight.
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