Undisputed heavyweight champion Claressa Shields, arguably the best female fighter on the planet, is a free agent in boxing.
The 30-year-old has spent her professional career signed with Dmitriy Salita’s Salita Promotions but announced after her latest win on Saturday that the deal had finished.
As a three-weight undisputed champion, unbeaten and one of the best talkers in the sport, Shields will be a massively attractive prospect for any promoter.
Her recent fight against Lani Daniels drew 15,000 fans at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena. A massive 71% of the tickets were purchased by women.
Shields, alongside bitter rival Savannah Marshall, also sold more than 15,000 tickets at London’s O2 Arena in 2022, with a peak TV audience of two million.
There has always been a feeling Shields is not as big as her accolades demand, so would a new promotional partner change that? BBC Sport takes a look at the options for the American star.
MVP & the £3.8m purse minimum
From the outside looking in, Jake Paul’s MVP seems like the natural fit despite some public verbal sparring with Shields.
Shields took issue with MVP billing the winner of Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano 3 as the women’s pound-for-pound number one.
Undefeated in 17 fights, Shields lays a strong claim to that spot. MVP houses several of the best fighters in the world – including many of Shields’ natural rivals – with lightweight world champion Terri Harper the latest fighter to join.
Hartlepool’s Marshall and newly crowned unified super-middleweight champion Shadasia Green are also with MVP. Shields is a former champion at the weight and already has a win over Marshall. Marshall remains the last woman to beat Shields in the amateurs in 2012.
Shields says she is open to speaking to every promoter.
“If their vision doesn’t align with my vision, then I’ll walk away. I don’t got any smoke with any of these entities,” Shields said on Ariel x Ade: The Boxing Show., external
Despite being American, Shields’ promotional options in the United States are perhaps limited.
Top Rank has just two females on its roster. The long-time number one boxing promoter in the US, Top Rank has no current TV deal after ending its association with ESPN last Saturday.
Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) doesn’t have a single female fighter signed to it.
It is MVP who has provided the biggest platforms for female fighters in the US in recent years. They staged an all-female card on Netflix in July, with six million people tuning in to watch. Reports suggested Taylor and Serrano split £14m for that contest.
Shields herself says she believes she should earn a minimum of £3.8m per fight. That is a big number to start at and probably out of reach for most of the promoters in the world.
But Shields is entertaining inside and out the ring, surely she would appeal to MVP and its Netflix partners?
The UK option
This seems the most unlikely option despite Shields’ past successes in the UK.
Matchroom is of course a big player when it comes to women’s boxing.
Queensberry lost its biggest star, Chantelle Cameron, to MVP earlier this year. Long-time Matchroom star Ellie Scotney also decided to join MVP.
Shields is a big attraction in the UK with the right dance partner, but her previous promoter Boxxer is facing an uncertain future.
Ben Shalom’s promotional outfit appears set to part ways with broadcast giants Sky Sports and it is unclear whether its biggest stars will choose to stay.
Who could Shields fight next?
There is always the option Shields re-signs with Salita Promotions. She could also take a leaf out of Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s books and look at short-term deals or fight-by-fight agreements.
She has been linked with fighting Laila Ali, daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. It was Salita who revealed there was a £11m offer on the table, funded by Wynn Records, for it to happen.
Ali retired in 2007 and, at 47 years old, that fight would be more circus than competitive. But boxing is no stranger to that.
Shields can stay at heavyweight or she could drop back down. She has won world titles in four weight classes.
Old rival and unified middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn was ringside for her most recent win and was expecting a face-off that was scrapped at the last moment.
As it stands Crews-Dezurn seems the most likely opponent for Shields. The Detroit native is not lacking options, the biggest question is who Shields will partner with as she continues her efforts to become the universally accepted pound-for-pound female number one.
