Undisputed junior middleweight and IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight champion Claressa Shields has signed a multi-fight deal worth seven figures with European broadcast company Sky Sports and the BOXXER promotion company.
The deal, which is for up to three fights, will pay Shields an undisclosed seven-figure sum over length of the contract. That includes her next fight, Dec. 11 against Ema Kozin, in Cardiff, Wales, where she’ll defend her WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight titles.
The 26-year-old Shields (11-0, 2 KO) has spent 2021 split between boxing and fighting in MMA with the Professional Fighters League. Her last boxing match came in March, when she headlined an all-female Pay Per View card, defeating Marie-Eve Diciare to become the undisputed junior middleweight champion.
She also fought twice in mixed martial arts this year, defeating Brittney Elkin in her debut and then a split decision to Abigail Montes in October as part of the PFL card. It was her first loss in professional fighting and her first loss since 2012, when she lost to Savannah Marshall at the 2012 AIBA women’s world championships as an amateur.
It’ll be the first time Shields has fought outside the United States since winning the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She’ll face the 22-year-old Kozin (21-0-1, 11 KO), who last fought on May 22, where she beat Radana Knezevic in a second round TKO.
Should Shields win, it could set up a megafight – and a fight for the undisputed middleweight title – with Marshall, who currently holds the WBO title. Marshall signed with BOXXER earlier this year. In the announcement of the deal, Shields’ promoter, Dmitry Salita, and manager, Mark Taffet, both mentioned the potential eventually of a Shields-Marshall fight if Shields wins in December.
