BoxRec

Claressa Shields next fight official: Danielle Perkins set as opponent for Feb. 2

Claressa Shields will face Danielle Perkins on Feb. 2 in Flint, Michigan.

Claressa Shields is set to return to action on Sunday, Feb. 2, headlining a DAZN-streamed event from her hometown of Flint, Mich.

Shields (15-0, 3 KO) will defend her WBC heavyweight title against Danielle Perkins (5-0, 2 KO), a 42-year-old who turned pro at age 37 in 2020.

If you’ve never seen Perkins fight and are wondering if she has a legitimate shot at beating the 29-year-old Shields, who is arguably the single best women’s boxer in history, the answer is no, barring an injury, miracle, or more likely injury and miracle combined.

But this is the position that Shields’ boxing career is in, basically. She’s been undisputed at 154, 160, and 168, and is now essentially fighting at “Claressaweight,” because there are no contenders at proper weights she hasn’t beaten, and she just has no real incentive to cut any more than she feels like, because the competition and box office potential are capped at a pretty clear level from this point.

It’s not her fault, mind you, other than she’s simply too good for the field, and by quite a lot, and has already beaten everyone there is to beat.

Shields last fought on July 27 in Detroit, scoring a second round stoppage win over the hapless Vanessa Joanisse in a fight that had heavyweight and light heavyweight titles on the line, partly because neither division truly exists in women’s boxing, so you can kinda just do what you want.

Perkins, not by coincidence, fought on that undercard, winning a six-round decision over Christianne Fahey. Perkins was about 175 for her bout that night, same as Shields, and has fought as heavy as just shy of 200 lbs. She is a big (6’0”), physically strong fighter, but the difference in skill level will be enormous, as it was with Shields and Joanisse.

This is now undisputed.

The WBA have created a female HW title.

Pryce Taylor-Robert Simms heavyweight bout added to Claressa Shields-Danielle Perkins undercard

Boxing Scene has learned that heavyweight prospect Pryce Taylor will face Robert Simms next in a bout underneath the Claressa Shields-Danielle Perkins fight on February 2.

Shields-Perkins will main event at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, and be broadcast on DAZN.

Taylor, 28, from Brooklyn, New York, will be entering only his sixth fight as a professional.

“It’s a big step up for him, and that's an in-house fight because I work with both guys,” said Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions. “It's a good fight. It's a competitive fight, and we want to make the biggest and the best fights for the boxing fans to get engaged, enjoy the fights, and for the fighters to challenge themselves and take the next step in their respective careers.”

Taylor, 5-0 (3 KOs), made his debut with Salita Promotions in December, stopping KeShawn Jackson via technical knockout in the third round.

Simms, 40, from Saginaw, Michigan, hasn’t fought since November 2023, when he saw his five-fight unbeaten streak end with a unanimous decision loss to Brandon Moore. Simms enters this fight with a record of 12-4-1 (3 KOs).

Claressa Shields needs a gender test

Hi
interesting fight which causes a few questions.
They name it Unified Championship but I guess it must be Undisputed cause its for: WBA (new title created), WBC, WBO, IBF, right? Apart of that, in case of the WBA, is the fight for the Super title or the Regular title only?
Secondly, is that fight also for the Ring Magazine title and is it than technically seen also a fight for the Lineal World title?
From a statistical point of few in my opinion it is for the Lineal Title because there's never been a female Lineal Heavyweight Champion and not even a Unified Champion yet, right.
In case of Ring Magazine, I don't know if they put their belt on the line for this historic fight.

Your thoughts, answers, opinions are welcome and appreciated!

Thanks

They call Shields fights Heavyweight fights now? Isn't she still only like 160 something pounds?

gilgamesh wrote: ↑23 Jan 2025, 14:52 They call Shields fights Heavyweight fights now? Isn't she still only like 160 something pounds?

Last weigh-in pics I saw.. it looked like she went on a fast food binge and gained 15 pounds. Looked like shit. Still way too much skill for the other women.

Fight Week!!

v

Fight night

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑01 Feb 2025, 08:32 Fight night

Hmmmm, aren’t they fighting on Sunday?

Bling wrote: ↑01 Feb 2025, 10:56

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑01 Feb 2025, 08:32 Fight night

Hmmmm, aren’t they fighting on Sunday?

Yup! Lol

I was expecting her opponent to have a decent winning record. 5-0

Date: February 2, 2025
Location: Dort Financial Center - Flint, MI, United States
Where to watch: DAZN
Start time: 8 pm ET | 5 pm PT | 1 am GMT

Fight Card

WBC Heavyweight Championship
Claressa Shields vs. Danielle Perkins

10 Round Heavyweight Bout
Brandon Moore vs. Skylar Lacy

8 Round Middleweight Bout
Leon Lawson III vs. Christopher Thompson

8 Round Lightweight Bout
Joshua James Pagan vs. Ronal Ron

Wow! After 6 amateur and 5 pro fights, Perkins is in an undisputed HW championship contest. Ridiculous.

igor king wrote: ↑02 Feb 2025, 16:58 Wow! After 6 amateur and 5 pro fights, Perkins is in an undisputed HW championship contest. Ridiculous.

Well considering there are only 18 heavyweight women in boxrec data base.

The Big Lumps are on now, but where are the casual Boxreccers ?
Woulda thought there'd be at least 20 people awake @ 4 am on a Monday morning to watch The Gwoat...

Bloody hell these two lumps are making TKV vs Webster look like Andrade vs Saunders, or Shak vs Loma or something !
Only good thing about this fight was when the ringside cameraman got spanked off the apron !

In fact, this fight is so, SO bad it's worth a watch - it really is "the worst fight I've ever seen"
But.., in a good way !

So much more entertainment (and betting) than (say) 40 rounds of Skye Nicholson.

GWOAT keeps on making HERstory

I actually thought it was a good fight, Perkins was massive in comparison, she took the fight to Shields but Shields was too quick and skillful and even got the better when they were slugging away, she dropped Perkins with a peach of a right hand, last punch of the fight but yeh I was surprisingly entertained, I still long for the day when Shields gets humbled

CompuBox punch stats

Make sure you watch Brandon Moore vs Skylar Lacy - that’s the fight so bad it ended up being good.
Shields wasn’t too bad - like a women’s Usyk vs Fury.. !

I'm trying to watch a replay of the undercard now but DAZN is jacked up-as usual.