There is nothing about Lani Daniels’ history that makes Claressa Shields believe Daniels will try to brawl with her July 26.
Shields suspects Daniels’ trainer, John Conway, is simply talking tough, attempting to convince Daniels that brawling with Shields is her potential path to victory in their 10-round heavyweight title fight at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The five-division champion figures Conway recognizes that Daniels isn’t equipped to out-box the most accomplished woman in boxing history.
New Zealand’s Daniels has knocked out only one of her 15 professional opponents, though, which makes Shields skeptical about the former IBF heavyweight champ and current IBF light heavyweight titleholder’s desire to trade with her. Shields has a low knockout ratio as well (19 percent), but the two-time Olympic gold medalist dropped Danielle Perkins in the 10th round of her last fight and stopped Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in the second round of her previous bout, which represented Shields’ debut in the heavyweight division.
If Daniels does try to make their bout a dogfight, Shields (16-0, 3 KOs) warned her what will happen during a press conference Monday to promote a main event DAZN will stream worldwide.
“[Conway] said something so interesting today,” Shields said. “He said they’re not gonna come in there and box against me, they’re gonna fight me. She gonna brawl. Baby, you do that. Lani, if you come in there and you let your coach convince you to do that, you gonna be out quicker than what I thought. I was giving you to round six. You come out there and stand in front of me and brawl with me, I promise you, you said stretcher today, you will be going out on one.”
Daniels (11-2-2, 1 KOs) has not been knocked out in nearly eight years as a pro. Hanna Gabriels sent Shields to the canvas in the first round of their June 2018 bout in Detroit, but Shields got up quickly from that flash knockdown, beat Gabriels easily on points and hasn’t been down in any of her 10 fights since then.
Shields has won most of her professional fights very comfortably on the scorecards, yet she still encouraged Daniels, 36, to try to match skills with her. The 30-year-old Flint, Michigan native seemingly took offense to Conway talking about the flaws he feels Daniels can exploit.
Whichever approach Daniels utilizes, Shields expects to demonstrate why handicappers have made her a 20-1 favorite against a current world champion.
“It’s best to use your skills and tighten up that defense and keep them hands up,” Shields said. “Cuz all them other girls you fought against, they may have been a little bit bigger, but they are not as skilled as me and they wasn’t as sharp, they wasn’t as fast. And I’m trying to tell you, to be fighting here, we gonna be fighting in front of 19,000 people. Imma lay yo ass out. And then your coach gonna run in there and try and pick you up. That’s what’s gonna happen on July 26th. I did not come to play around. All these girls do all this talking, what they gonna do … you don’t wanna brawl wit’ me. You don’t wanna do that. But I want you to.”
