Shields: Price Must ‘Come To America If She Wants Smoke’

[Ruthless-RKO]

Shields: Price Must ‘Come To America If She Wants Smoke’

Reigning female undisputed heavyweight champion Claressa Shields was a surprise visitor on Saturday night.

The Detroit native made the hush-hush trip to the Welsh capital to watch welterweight Lauren Price successfully defend her titles against Stephanie Pineiro ahead of a potential superfight.

"She's Olympic champion, and she's undefeated, she's hungry, and she feels she's the next best and skilled enough that she can beat me in a fight," Shields (18-0, 3 KOs) told The Ring.

Price is naturally smaller, competing at 147 pounds, while Shields has won world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and is the current heavyweight champion. Shields, who defeated Ema Kozin (UD 10) in Cardiff in January 2022, is happy to entertain her rival but says she's the A-side and calling the shots.

"I believe 160 is the lowest option, really 165, honestly," she said. "For some who complain about me being too big and strong, I would try and eat a few less burgers to get down to 160."

Another question is where the fight would take place.

"You want me to come to the UK, you pay me that money," she said. "Lauren fought in front of 7,000, I fought in front of 18,000. I've had sold-out events in my last three fights. We know I'm a big draw. "As far as me and Price, I am the bigger star. I'm the more accomplished fighter. I am pound-for-pound No. 1. She wants to be mentioned in those names, but it's always me coming to get these girls and not these girls coming to get me. I don't think Lauren is big enough for me to come over here in the UK. She has to come to America if she wants the smoke.

"I'm not going to say the fight's off or can't be made if she says, 'I'm too scared to come to America, I want to fight here.' I'll be like, 'It's OK.'"

While Price is smaller, she believes her speed would help her upset Shields. The self-styled "GWOAT" disagrees.

"Lauren is not faster than me," she said. "I saw the film. You're 5-foot-5, you look fast, your arms are short, you're not faster than me. No, your speed is not faster than mine, your footwork is not better than mine, you don't punch harder than me. As far as defense, we know you've got to work on that."

Shields. who claimed gold at the 2012 and '16 Olympics before turning professional in the fall of '16, remains unbeaten and says she always finds a way to win. She expects that if the Price fight happens, she would bring out her best.

"I'm very hard to beat. You can be stronger, you can be faster, you can have more fights, you can be bigger, you can be smaller, and I still dominate," she said.

"I'm looking forward to fighting a girl who has some of that same experience, Olympic champion, undefeated. I’ve fought girls who were undefeated, but they weren't Olympic champions. I think Olympic champions are very, very hard to beat, because, of course, I am one."

[Ruthless-RKO]

The fight is bigger in UK than in the US.

Shields knows this and should know this from when she fought Savannah Marshall over here few years back.

Price ain’t no Marshall and I think Shields will win, but it’s probably gonna be in front of 500 people in US.

They can make an event out of this and have way more.

[Boxerbeetle]

Shields is much too big for Price.

[stujones]

Yeah, think if Price could entice Savannah Marshall back, that would be a tall order for the Welsh lass. shields would be both too big and too good.

[lookingaround87]

I thought this was Ronnie Shields talking about David Price, that's how little women's boxing means to me.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Claressa Shields-Lauren Price: Promoter keen on making ‘era-defining’ clash

Claressa Shields and Lauren Price, two Olympic gold medalists, could be headed for a clash, according to Shields' promoter.

Price defeated Stephanie Pineiro Aquino via 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday in the main event from Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales. Price, a 2020 Olympic gold medalist, faced off with Shields, a two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist, after the win.

Price, 10-0 (2 KOs), is currently a unified welterweight champion, coming in just under the 147lbs limit for her latest contest, as she made her third title defense.

Shields, on the other hand, has fought at women’s heavyweight (175lbs) since July 2024. Before that, she competed at middleweight and hasn’t fought at junior middleweight since 2021.

One thing they do have in common, however, is that between them, they won the first three women’s middleweight gold medals at the Olympics.

“The goal is to make the fight as soon as possible at a weight that works for both boxers,” Dmitriy Salita, the promoter of Shields, told BS. “It’s the kind of matchup that defines an era.”

Shields, 18-0 (3 KOs), has also become a notable ticket seller in Detroit. She most recently won a 10-round unanimous decision over Franchon Crews-Dezurn in February. Flint, Michigan’s Shields has also fought in Britain, defeating rival Savannah Marshall in 2022.

“[It is] one of the biggest fights in women’s boxing,” Salita said. “Two Olympic gold medalists in the same weight class, both at the top of the sport, representing dominant regions, the U.K. and U.S.A.”

If the bout were to happen, it would pit two eras of women’s boxing, even though Price, a 31-year-old from Newport, Wales, is older than Shields. Price started boxing after seeing the 2012 Olympics, the same Olympics in which the now 30-year-old Shields won gold. Shields is a five-division titleholder and a three-division undisputed champion, who is running out of suitable opponents to face.

“Claressa’s commitment to taking on the biggest challenges and continuing to grow the sport is unprecedented,” Salita said. “[It is] another legacy-building moment for the GWOAT (Shields).”

[smiling assassin]

I thought this was Ronnie Shields talking about David Price, that's how little women's boxing means to me.

I think it means very little to a lot of boxing fans. The round by round thread of the women’s card the other night tells us that. I’d love to see the viewing figures, bet they were terrible.

[tigermoth87]

Shields always comes across as the biggest bellend in boxing.

Someone should tell her nobody cares about women's boxing.

If she competed in the mens middleweight division she would be ranked 1993 on Boxrec

[gilgamesh]

The fact that the Women's Heavyweight Champion vs The Women's Welterweight Champion is being presented as an "Era defining clash" says it all about Women's Boxing.

There's like 5 girls that can fight in the entire sport, and a bunch of others who got really into pilates or something and figured out they can get paid pretty decent by having bad fights with other girls who can't fight.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Looking like a 2-fight deal.

Fight one has been finalised.

They working on fight two negotiations.

[Coco]

Looking like a 2-fight deal.

Fight one has been finalised.

They working on fight two negotiations.

Boxxer involved?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Looking like a 2-fight deal.

Fight one has been finalised.

They working on fight two negotiations.

Boxxer involved?

Yh. Ben is the one who confirmed this.

[MPW]

The weight class, or most likely the catchweight, will be an interesting consideration of this potential fight. In an early part of the thread, Shields said that 165 was the probable lower limit for her, while Price typically fights at 147. That's an 18-pound difference or more than 12% of the WW limit.

Price clearly has boxing skills and athleticism but so does Shields, who will also have a significant size advantage in the ring. And, as much as it pains me to type this, I think that the size discrepancy will ultimately prove too much for the Welshwoman to overcome.

[Ruthless-RKO]

SHIELDS, PRICE NEARING DEAL FOR MIDDLEWEIGHT FIGHT EARLY IN 2027

Claressa Shields will drop back down in weight to fight an undefeated, unified champ who is also on pound-for-pound lists – just not the one she initially targeted.

Dmitriy Salita, Shields’ career-long promoter, informed The Ring that ongoing negotiations should lead to a deal for Shields to face fellow Olympic gold medalist Lauren Price in a middleweight match on a date to be determined in the first quarter of 2027, somewhere in the United States. Shields and Price expect to fight other opponents before they meet, perhaps on the same card.

Shields exhausted most of her options at heavyweight (175 pounds for women) and super middleweight and turned her attention to Price once a much-discussed showdown with former U.S. Olympic teammate Mikaela Mayer didn’t materialize.
“Our intent is to make a Claressa-Lauren fight,” Salita told The Ring. “Claressa flew out to Wales for Lauren Price’s last fight and obviously demonstrated her interest in making it. We’ve since had meaningful discussions [with Ben Shalom, Price’s promoter] and they’ve exchanged some words, as fighters do.

“They’re two Olympic gold medalists. It’s one of the biggest fights in boxing and the biggest fight in women’s boxing, and it would be another legacy-making statement for Claressa Shields. There are details that still need to be ironed out, but we’re optimistic that at some point it will get done.”

Shields (18-0, 3 KOs), a five-division champion from Flint, Michigan, hasn’t competed at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds in three years. The former undisputed middleweight champ has weighed at least 173½ pounds for each of her four fights since she defended her Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts against Maricela Cornejo, a late replacement Shields defeated by unanimous decision in June 2023.

Price (10-0, 2 KOs) – a southpaw from Ystrad, Mynach, Wales – has competed at welterweight since she made her pro debut in June 2022. The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC 147-pound champ won a gold medal in the 165-pound division, however, at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is thus accustomed to succeeding at a higher weight.

Shields, 31, is ranked No. 2 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list. Price, also 31, is No. 8, five spots below the third-ranked Mayer.

Las Vegas’ Mayer (22-2, 5 KOs) is scheduled to face fifth-ranked Brit Chantelle Cameron (22-1, 8 KOs) in a 10-round fight for Mayer’s WBA and WBC and Cameron’s WBO 154-pound titles August 29 at bp pulse LIVE in Birmingham, England.