Flint boxer Claressa Shields is taking a big step up in her next fight.
The two-time Olympic and multi-professional boxing champion is scheduled to fight for the WBC heavyweight title July 27 in Detroit.
Shields insists she’s ready, despite the fact she’s stepping up two weight classes, to challenge heavyweight champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.
“I just don’t believe that there is a woman who’s on this earth that can beat me,” Shields told reporters and supporters at a news conference in Flint on Wednesday.
Her opponent was also at the news conference.
Speaking mainly in French, Canadian Lepage-Joanisse questioned whether Shields is prepared for the big step up in weight class.
“It remains to be seen if she can take the punch of a heavyweight,” she said through an interpreter, “What’s going to matter is… during that fight…can she handle the power.”
During Wednesday’s news conference, the only statement Lepage-Joanisse made in English was “I’m a champ of the world.”
Lepage-Joanisse won the WBC heavyweight title in March. It was her seventh victory in eight career professional fights.
Shields has a perfect 14-win record as a professional. During her professional career, Shields has won multiple world championships, in the middleweight division.
