FIGHT WEEK
Three-division titleholder Claressa Shields returns to the boxing ring against Marie-Eve Dicaire in an all-woman pay-per-view show Friday night in Shields’ hometown of Flint, Mich.
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SERHII BOHACHUK (18-0, 18 KOs)
VS. BRANDON ADAMS (22-3, 14 KOs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAdxDXZrpEs
- When: Thursday, Feb. 27
- Where: Municipal Boxing Gym Felix Pagan Pintor, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
- TV/Stream: NBC Sports Network
- Division: Junior middleweight (154 pounds)
- At stake: No titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Danielito Zorrilla vs. Ruslan Madiyev, 10 rounds, junior welterweights
- Prediction: Bohachuk UD
- Background: Bohachuk couldn’t have had a better start to his professional career, having stopped all 18 of his opponents in six rounds or less since turning pro in 2017. However, Adams, a former title challenger, represents a step up in opposition for the 25-year-old Ukrainian. The Los Angeles resident, a solid boxer-puncher, lost a wide decision to middleweight titleholder Jermall Charlo in June 2019 but bounced back to stop Sanny Duversonne in two rounds this past December. Bohachuk was last in the ring last September, when he knocked out Alejandro Davila in six rounds in Mexico. Bohachuk is ranked by two of the four major sanctioning bodies, Adams by one.
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CLARESSA SHIELDS (10-0, 2 KOs) VS.
MARIE-EVE DICAIRE (17-0, 0 KOs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1P0kH0_w_U
- When: Friday, March 5
- Where: Dort Financial Center, Flint, Mich.
- TV/Stream: Pay-per-view (FITE TV)
- Division: Junior middleweight (154 pounds)
- At stake: Shields’ WBC and WBO, Dicaire’s IBF and vacant WBA titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Raquel Miller vs. TBA, 10 rounds, junior middlweights; Danielle Perkins vs. Monika Harrison, six rounds, heavyweights; Nadia Meknouzi vs. Samantha Pill, eight rounds, light heavyweights
- Prediction: Shields UD
- Background: Shields and Dicaire are the first women to headline a pay-per-view card since Laila Ali outointed Jacqui Frazier in 2001. The fight was originally set for May but was postponed multiple times, which accounts for Shields’ long layoff. She last fought in January of last year, when she defeated Ivan Habazin by a near-shutout decision to capture two vacant junior middleweight titles. DiCaire, who has been out of the ring since November 2019, will be making the fourth defense of her title. Shields is thrilled to be in the featured fight of a pay-per-view event. She told ESPN: “I’m super excited to be having my first pay-per-view card and I’m hoping that everybody who has been waiting on me to fight, everybody that supports me, that they all get behind me and get behind the women athlete movement and just join us because not only are we yelling equal pay, equal opportunity, equal TV time, we’re also working just as hard. We’re equally working.” Shields has begun training for her MMA debut.
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TONY YOKA (9-0, 7 KOs)
VS. JOEL DJEKO (17-2-1, 8 KOs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1MsVzZHudU
- When: Friday, March 5
- Where: H Arena, Nantes, France
- TV/Stream: ESPN+
- Division: Heavyweight (unlimited)
- At stake: No major titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Estelle Yoka Mossely vs. Verena Kaiser, 10 rounds, lightweights
- Prediction: Yoka UD
- Background: Yoka, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist, is looking to take another step toward his first shot at a world title. The 6-foot-7 Frenchman is coming off a shutout decision over Christian Hammer this past November, also at the H Arena. The 28-year-old Parisian has yet to fight outside his native country. Joel Tambwe Djeko is a 31-year-old Belgian who is based in Essex, England. He’s coming off a first-round knockout of John Cortez in January of last year, his eighth consecutive victory.