Claressa Shields Beats Ivana Habazin To Win WBC & WBO Female Junior Middleweight Titles
Claressa Shields kicked off 2020 with a historic win in Atlantic City, becoming boxing’s quickest three-division champion.
Accompanied and supported by the likes of Andre Ward, Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson and with Beyonce’s “Run The World” playing as her walkout music, Shields made her claim as the one who runs the world of women’s boxing with another dominant performance in a world title fight. Shields won a lopsided 10-round decision against Ivana Habazin in the main event of a Showtime-televised card to win the WBO and WBC Female junior middleweight titles in Shields’ 10th pro fight.
With that win, a unanimous decision victory with scores of 99-89, 100-90 and 100-89, Shields became the quickest boxer, regardless of gender, to win a title in three divisions. Shields is also a dual champion as she still is women’s boxing’s undisputed middleweight champion.
Shields had dominated the fight at times thanks to some timely body punches, which eventually broke down Habazin and forced her to take a knee. From that point onward, Shields tried to secure the knockout victory while Habazin valiantly fought to survive and was able to go the distance against the champion.
That wasn’t the only women’s world title fight on the show as Elin Cederroos scored an extremely close victory on the scorecards to beat Alicia Napoleon-Espinoza to unify the WBA and IBF super middleweight titles. In the co-main event, rising welterweight star Jaron Ennis stopped Bahkhtyar Eyubov to improve his record to 25-0 and getting his 23rd win inside the distance.
Below are the official results of the January 10 Showtime Boxing card:
- Claressa Shields defeated Ivana Habazin by unanimous decision (99-89, 100-90, 100-89) to win the unified WBO and WBC Female junior middleweight titles
- Jaron Ennis defeated Bahkhtyar Eyubov by TKO, round 4, 0:34
- Elin Cederroos defeated Alicia Napoleon-Espinoza by unanimous decision (95-94, 95-94, 95-94) to win the unified WBA and IBF Female super middleweight titles