With the news that Queen Elizabeth passed away at the age of 96, the decision was made by the British Boxing Board of Control that all sporting events would be postponed this weekend. With that, the event that was scheduled to take place at the O2 Arena on Saturday in London will reportedly be moving to October 15.
This all female card is co-headlined by the match-ups between jr. lightweight champions Mikaela Mayer and Alycia Baumgardner, and the grudge match for the undisputed middleweight Savannah Marshall and Claressa Shields
To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of woman's boxing. Yeah, I know, I know that sounds terrible, and I know some of you will state the boxing is boxing. In theory you are correct, but then my counter would be: if you are a fan of basketball, how much of the WNBA do you watch?
But putting all of that aside, I am/was looking forward to these fights (whenever they happen) for two reasons.
First they are of high quality. Mayer-Baumgardner is a pairing of the Ring Magazine champion at super featherweight versus the number two contender. Meanwhile, Shields and Marshall are both listed on Ring's pound-for-pound ratings. Shields is their middleweight champion, with Savannah the top-rated contender in the division.
To put this into perspective, this would be like a fight between Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez (who faced one another earlier this year) being paired with Gennadiy Golovkin-Jermall Charlo on one card. Which quite frankly, would be unthinkable. At this juncture, because the money involved with the ladies isn't so astronomical that cards of this nature can be made.
And what really piques the interest of the fans is that both of these fights have good ol' fashioned bad blood. The animosity between the combatants seems genuine. Mayer and Baumgardner have been back-and-forthing on Twitter for several months.
But there is some deep underlying respect between the two. There seemed to be an understanding that they needed to promote this event on their own behalf.
“I know there’s been a lot of trash talk between me and Baumgardner. But I respect her enough to train extremely hard for this fight. And I plan on getting a strong, tough version of her on Saturday,'' said Mayer (17-0, 5 KOs), who won defeated Maiva Hamadouche in a memorable title unification bout last year.
Baumgardner, who won her WBC title by belting out Terri Harper in four rounds last November, stated, “At the end of the day, I respect her. She’s a fighter just like I am. It’s fight week. I’m ready to go. I’ve been preparing for this moment for a very long time. I know that I’m on the top of my game. 20 years in the sport. This is where I’m supposed to be.”
It's not clear if the same professional courtesy exists between Marshall and Shields, who met long ago as amateurs, with Marshall winning a disputed decision.
"What she doesn’t like is that I’ve got an opinion. I sat and watch her box in Cardiff, and I thought it was diabolical. She didn’t like that I told her that. That’s what she got upset about," said Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs), who brings in the WBO world middleweight strap with her.
“I’ve never seen something like this in boxing,'" said the fiery Shields(12-0, 2 KOs), who is the IBF/WBA/WBC champion coming in. "Someone who lives off of an amateur win for 10 years. God! Sometimes I think about, and it’s like they're trying to erase everything I’ve done in the past 10 years because I have been dominant in boxing for a decade.”
All of this will still happen. Just several weeks later than originally planned.
FINAL FLURRIES
Golden Boy Promotions announced that the lightweight contest between Joseph Diaz and William Zepeda, originally slated for November 5, will now take place on October 29 at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego. Tickets go on sale on Friday....There is a ShoBox card tonight from Bally's Atlantic City that has a main event between Joseph Adorno and Hugo Alberto Roldan....Are we still taking anything Tyson Fury says seriously?....How good was this past season of 'Hard Knocks' on HBO?....If you need your boxing fix on Saturday, there is still the 'Social Gloves' card at the Banc of California Stadium....I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com.....
