Shannon Courtenay vs. Ebanie Bridges - April 10, 2021

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ebanie Bridges Takes On Shannon Courtenay On April 10th For Vacant WBA Bantamweight Title

Shannon Courtenay will face Ebanie Bridges for the vacant WBA Bantamweight World Title at a venue to be confirmed on Saturday April 10, live on Sky Sports in the UK and on DAZN in the U.S. and more than 200 countries and territories.

Courtenay (6-1, 3 KOs), who stopped Dorota Norek in seven rounds on the Saunders vs. Murray undercard last time out in December, was originally slated to rematch Rachel Ball for the WBA crown, but her Fight Camp nemesis is still recovering from the effects of COVID-19.

Australia’s Bridges (5-0, 2 KOs) celebrated her return to the ring after more than a year out with a convincing points win over Carol Earl in Sydney. ‘The Blonde Bomber’ won the judges’ favour and secured a unanimous decision victory in Bankstown to extend her unbeaten run to five fights, including two knockouts.

“I was gutted to hear Rachel had pulled out but safety comes first so I wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to when we do have that rematch down the line,” said Courtenay.

“All that’s changed is the opponent, the outcome is still the same and on April 10 I will be crowned World Champion.

“We‘ll put on a great, non-stop action fight for the fans but I’m more determined and focused than ever and that World Title is staying in the UK.”

“I’m very excited to be the first female from Australia fighting on a Matchroom card,” said Bridges. “When Eddie contacted me, it was really unexpected but I’m not going to say no to this chance.

“I was gutted for Rachel as she’s a friend and I wish her well in recovery but opportunity knocks. This is a fight that fans have spoke about for a while now since I moved onto the British scene. I respect Shannon as a boxer, I think we’ll put on a great show but I’ll be the one leaving with the gold.

“This is a huge platform to showcase my skills and who I am, ‘The Blonde Bomber’, to the world. I’ll bring the fight to Shannon – I’m coming to win that World Title, buckle up!”

[MasterG]

Short notice fight for Bridges so will be interesting to see if she is ring fit.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Short notice fight for Bridges so will be interesting to see if she is ring fit.

She's in top shape.. I'm sure she didn't break much sweat her last fight.

Fake boobs made her famous..

[higgs88]

This fight is everything that's wrong with women's boxing, one of these 2 will be able to call themselves a world champion after this fight, just look at their records and who they've fought, and they're fighting for a world title

[Ruthless-RKO]

This fight is everything that's wrong with women's boxing, one of these 2 will be able to call themselves a world champion after this fight, just look at their records and who they've fought, and they're fighting for a world title

It's womens boxing.

Who are they supposed to have fought?

[BigEars]

You're half right, in that we can't have the same expectations in women's boxing to men due to the shallower talent pool.

But at the same time standards should be set above what this fight is. Courtenay's boxrec ranking is #12, Bridges #31, there's no question there's plenty of much more deserving and proven fighters who could get this title shot instead.

However Courtenay is matchroom so has big promotion behind her, and Bridges is an attractive woman who'll help sell the fight but isn't a threat to Courtenay. It's a perfect pick for a promoter, but it's not right.

[Ruthless-RKO]

This has come quick. Can’t wait for the weigh in..

[Muttley]

This fight is everything that's wrong with women's boxing, one of these 2 will be able to call themselves a world champion after this fight, just look at their records and who they've fought, and they're fighting for a world title

correct. Totally undermines the real quality female world champions. The sad thing is, Sky will parade this novice 6x2 job as a 'genuine world title. No disrespect to the boxers but they are not at world title level yet. nowhere near. They may never get there but at least give them the opportunity to develop and maximise their potential by gradually moving up in class.

[Muttley]

You're half right, in that we can't have the same expectations in women's boxing to men due to the shallower talent pool.

But at the same time standards should be set above what this fight is. Courtenay's boxrec ranking is #12, Bridges #31, there's no question there's plenty of much more deserving and proven fighters who could get this title shot instead.

However Courtenay is matchroom so has big promotion behind her, and Bridges is an attractive woman who'll help sell the fight but isn't a threat to Courtenay. It's a perfect pick for a promoter, but it's not right.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ebanie Bridges Vows To Prove She's Not Just Looks Against Courtenay

Unbeaten Ebanie Bridges will take part in a make or break fight on Saturday night at Wembley Arena, when she faces Shannon Courtenay for the WBA bantamweight title.

Bridges has more than her fair share of critics, who believes she's nothing more than looks.

She's not afraid to flaunt her looks and show off her figure, on social media and at weigh-ins.

Because of that, there is more footage and photos found online of Bridges in bikinis than there are of her actual fights.

Beating Courtenay and capturing the WBA title will cement her status as a legitimate fighter.

"I am stereotyped for my looks - 'pretty girls can't box and pretty girls aren't smart'," Bridges said to Sky Sports.

"It's got nothing to do with my record because there's plenty of girls with more fights than me. The difference? It's the way I look. Let's be real. If I wore what everyone else wore, people wouldn't be interested. I'd just be another fight. Whatever."

"I'm trying to bring more eyes to the sport. You can criticize me as much as you like. But if I looked plain then you wouldn't even know this fight was happening. People will tune in to see if this girl wearing lingerie can actually fight, or is she just a model? The thing is; me and Shannon can really fight."


"If people had my body and my confidence then they would do it, but people are too scared of being judged. As a bodybuilder I stood on stage in a bikini flexing my body. I love it. I don't care what people think. Doing weigh-ins is showing off my hard work. It's something I enjoy. I make it a thing where my fans can interact with me. This is an entertainment business. This is something different that others aren't doing. Why do I need to be the same as everyone else? Everyone wears underwear at weigh-ins. Do you want me to wear a paper bag?"

[milpool]

Ebanie Bridges Vows To Prove She's Not Just Looks Against Courtenay

Unbeaten Ebanie Bridges will take part in a make or break fight on Saturday night at Wembley Arena, when she faces Shannon Courtenay for the WBA bantamweight title.

Bridges has more than her fair share of critics, who believes she's nothing more than looks.

She's not afraid to flaunt her looks and show off her figure, on social media and at weigh-ins.

Because of that, there is more footage and photos found online of Bridges in bikinis than there are of her actual fights.

Beating Courtenay and capturing the WBA title will cement her status as a legitimate fighter.

"I am stereotyped for my looks - 'pretty girls can't box and pretty girls aren't smart'," Bridges said to Sky Sports.

"It's got nothing to do with my record because there's plenty of girls with more fights than me. The difference? It's the way I look. Let's be real. If I wore what everyone else wore, people wouldn't be interested. I'd just be another fight. Whatever."

"I'm trying to bring more eyes to the sport. You can criticize me as much as you like. But if I looked plain then you wouldn't even know this fight was happening. People will tune in to see if this girl wearing lingerie can actually fight, or is she just a model? The thing is; me and Shannon can really fight."


"If people had my body and my confidence then they would do it, but people are too scared of being judged. As a bodybuilder I stood on stage in a bikini flexing my body. I love it. I don't care what people think. Doing weigh-ins is showing off my hard work. It's something I enjoy. I make it a thing where my fans can interact with me. This is an entertainment business. This is something different that others aren't doing. Why do I need to be the same as everyone else? Everyone wears underwear at weigh-ins. Do you want me to wear a paper bag?"

Wow, Ebanie Bridges sure loves herself!

[asmund]

"I am stereotyped for my looks - 'pretty girls can't box and pretty girls aren't smart'," Bridges said to Sky Sports.

And you still want fake boobs

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

Sky are really hyping Bridges..

Putting up articles and all that..

Shouldn't they be really doing that for Courtenay?

ahhahaa!

boobs = £££

[Ruthless-RKO]

Bridges was all covered up..

It was Courtenay who had a few buttons undonee.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Benn-Vargas Weigh-In Report

Benn (17-0, 11KOs) weighed a ripped 146 ¾ pounds. Vargas tipped the scale at a fight-ready 146.4 pounds.

Marshall weighed 159.4 pounds for her first fight since winning the belt. Lindberg—a late replacement for Femke Hermans (COVID)—weighed 154.9 pounds, her first since Dec. 2019.

Courtenay (6-1, 3KOs) weighed 117.8 pounds for the bout. Australia’s Bridges (5-0, 2KOs) weighed 117 pounds.

Below are the weights for the rest of the undercard.

Kash Farooq (14-1, 6 KOs), Glasgow, 117 pounds vs. Alexander Espinoza (20-2-2, KOs), Managua, 117 ½ pounds—10 rounds, bantamweight

Nick Campbell (pro debut) Jersey, England, 248 ½ pounds vs. Petr Frohlich (2-30-1, 1 KO), Duchcov, Czech Republic, 226.4 pounds—6 rounds, heavyweight

John Hedges (1-0, 0 KOs), Takeley, England, 177.1 pounds vs. Stank Jermelic (0-5, 0 KOs), Split, Croatia, 174 ¼ pounds—4 rounds, light heavyweight

[Ruthless-RKO]

You can see Eddeh's eyes... They're twiching..

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[milpool]

I dislike Courtenay and hope she gets flattened...unfortunately, I don't see it.

[Muttley]

I dislike Courtenay and hope she gets flattened...unfortunately, I don't see it.

I agree. Two very poor examples of female boxing. Courtney wins and all of a sudden she's on a par with Katie Taylor as a world champ. It's a joke. Her problem will be finding opposition she can beat. Hearn will have his work cut out

[Noxy]

I just watched them talking with Smith moderating. The fight can’t be worse than that.

[gregregegg]

Thats about 2 weight divisions bolted onto her chest there. Shame she cant box.

[MasterG]

Bridges is 5/1 so I think it's worth having a couple of quid on her. It's going to go the distance.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Courtenay-Bridges: Attire Not The Real Issue, WBA Sanction is The Problem

All the talk of underwear has done Eddie Hearn a favour when it has come to promoting Saturday night’s fight between Ebanie Bridges and Shannon Courtenay. The British boxer has been angered by Bridges’s decision to play up a sexy image. But if anyone had been disrespecting boxing, it has not been the Australian, it has been the WBA for sanctioning the fight for their world title.

It almost seems a joke to criticize the WBA for lowering its standards. After all, they have been doing it for years. But women’s boxing has been battling for respect for years and by declaring the winner of Saturday’s fight in London a world champion, the WBA are not even pretending to show that they care about quality.

The problem is not about Bridges’s image, the problem is that the pair are novices, having had just 12 professional bouts between them. Claressa Shields and Nicola Adams boxed for world titles in their fourth and sixth fights respectively, but they were double Olympic champions – Bridges and Courtenay’s amateur achievements can’t compare.

Neither can it be claimed that this fight is an indictment of the lack of depth in female boxing. That may be the case up the weight divisions, but there is no shortage of decent bantamweights. When this fight was announced, Bridges was in the WBA rankings at No 9. She was not even the top-ranked Australian, that honour going to Shannon O’Connell, who, in true WBA fashion, competed for that organization's “gold” title last month. Courtenay wasn’t ranked at all.

If boxing worked properly, the vacant belt would have been contested by the WBA’s top two contenders, which in February was Maureen Shea, of the United States, and Mexico’s Zulina Munoz. But the source of this fight seems to have been that Hearn got first dibs on the belt.

He had originally asked the WBA to sanction a fight for the vacant title between Bridges (who at that point had only had four fights) and Rachel Ball, winner over Courtenay last summer. Bridges was injured in training, though, and was replaced by the seemingly much more qualified former IBF super-flyweight champion Jorgelina Guanini. However, the Argentinian massively missed the weight, so that fight ended up taking place for the interim WBC super-bantamweight title.

Hearn then tried to remake Ball-Bridges for the same WBA title, and when Ball went down with COVID, in stepped Courtenay, who was promptly shoved into their rankings at No 8, one place above Bridges.

On their records, it is a pretty even fight, but for a world title? Surely not. Titles, after all, lose their value if everyone has one. And what is the value of being rated 1-7 by the WBA if you can be pushed aside by those below you.

Hearn suggested the fight would have been better if they had had “one more fight” each. What they needed to do was to beat a worthwhile contender. Both boxers have only beaten one opponent with more wins than defeats on their record, which in the case of Bridges was in her debut when she beat an opponent with a 2-1 record via a majority decision over three rounds. That opponent has lost her only subsequent fight. None of her other opponents have actually boxed since losing to Bridges. Only one of Courtenay’s victims has won a bout since losing to her.

No surprise then that the talk has not been about boxing, much to Courtenay’s annoyance.

“I look at people like Katie Taylor who done everything they have to raise the bar to allow women like me to fight for a living and I don’t like it being disrespected by talking not about the boxing but what people are going to wear at a weigh-in,” she said.

“I want people to talk about a fight. Could you imagine Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard discussing at a press conference what they are going to wear at a weigh-in?”

Bridges has obvious reason to be grateful to her image for helping her jump the queue to a title shot, pointing out that, with a promoter, it was down to her to promote herself.

“It’s an entertainment business,” she said. “It’s not about sexualizing it, it is about showing femininity in a male-dominated sport. There is a diversity of women, we are not all the same. Women should engage their characters and inner personalities a bit more and enjoy the ride. You can be this way and box well and win world titles.”

Not that either are expecting things to be too pretty in the ring. Bridges promised that is she was unable to knock Courtenay out, the British boxer would end up with a face “like a dropped pie”.