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Claressa Shields is willing to shed seven more pounds to fight Katie Taylor, but only for what she considers an appropriate purse.
Shields declared her willingness to box the unbeaten Taylor at a catch weight of 147 pounds after defeating Marie-Eve Dicaire on Friday night to fully unify the 154-pound titles. Ireland’s Taylor is women’s boxing’s undisputed lightweight champion, though she has competed at the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds.
The 34-year-old Taylor (17-0, 6 KOs) might be more willing to face the winner of the upcoming welterweight championship rematch between Jessica McCaskill and Cecilia Braekhus at a catch weight, but a showdown with Shields would generate more money and attention for Taylor. The 25-year-old Shields (11-0, 2 KOs) is commonly considered the best female fighter, pound-for-pound, in boxing.
Shields discussed a potential fight with Taylor during her post-fight interview Friday night in Flint, Michigan.
The three-division champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist made it perfectly clear that she would want to be properly compensated, however, before she’d consider moving all the way down to the welterweight limit. Shields started her pro career as a 168-pound super middleweight in November 2016, yet she already has dropped down two weight classes without it negatively impacting her performances.
“Katie Taylor is not the worry in that sentence, the 147 is,” Shields told Dan Canobbio in the ring. “Katie is a great fighter. They gotta pay me a lotta money for me to lose my butt to go down to 147. Like, at the end of the day, I’m a woman and that’s something that I love about my body. I might not have no big breasts, but I’ve got a nice butt. And I will lose that going to 147, so they need to come with that dough, and I’ll be seeing Katie at 147, as long as they come at least with a million. Talk to me nice.”
Shields dominated Dicaire (17-1, 0 KOs) in their 10-round fight for the IBF, WBA “super,” WBC and WBO 154-pound championships. Each judge scored Shields the winner of all 10 rounds in their pay-per-view main event (100-90, 100-90, 100-90).
In addition to mentioning Taylor as a potential opponent, Shields called out Savannah Marshall after defeating Dicaire. England’s Marshall (9-0, 7 KOs), the WBO middleweight champion, is the only opponent to whom Shields has lost as an amateur or a professional.
Shields didn’t mention the McCaskill-Braekhus winner.
Chicago’s McCaskill (9-2, 3 KOs) upset Norway’s Braekhus (36-1, 9 KOs) by majority decision in their 10-round fight for Braekhus’ IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO welterweight titles August 15 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Braekhus was boxing’s longest-reigning champion prior to her loss to McCaskill.
Their immediate rematch is scheduled for Saturday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas (DAZN).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.