Claressa Shields has dismissed suggestions Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse represents the toughest challenge of her career.
On Saturday at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, the undisputed middleweight champion moves to light heavyweight to fight Lepage-Joanisse for not only the vacant WBO title, but the heavyweight title of the WBC.
Having established herself as the world’s finest female fighter and then made the most emphatic statement of her dominance in 2022 with victory over Savannah Marshall, Shields’ latest significant test comes considerably above her natural weight.
Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse, like Shields aged 29, possesses a notable size advantage, but Shields believes that she has detected limitations that make her inferior to some of her opponents from the past.
“She’s my biggest opponent, I can say that, but as far as my toughest fight, I have fought against some really great fighters early on in my career,” she told BoxingScene. “Franchon Crews; Hanna Gabriels; Savannah Marshall; the likes of those girls have been around for years and fought all over the country.
“I have been in with the likes of those girls, so I think Vanessa has some attributes that can give me some problems for sure, but I have just fought against the best already and I’ve beaten the best – that’s why I’m here. I know Vanessa isn’t coming to lay down and it’s going to be hard breaking her will come July 27th, but I’m gonna do everything in my power to do so.
“We were supposed to fight against Lani Daniels – that was the first person – but then Lani got sick, or something, or injured. So, we went next best and next best was Vanessa, but then it was weird ‘cause when we signed to fight with Vanessa, Lani Daniels started going online saying I ducked her, but she was trying to get the fight with Vanessa. So, I don’t think she was truly injured, she just signed the papers to fight me and then decided, ‘I think I bit off a bit more than I can chew’, type of deal, and tried to sign a deal to fight with Vanessa – but Vanessa signed a deal to fight with me.”
Many of Shields’ respected contemporaries have wrongly been considered the underdog against bigger opponents, regardless of their superior skills.
Shields, in contrast, is considered a convincing favourite against Lepage-Joanisse, and she said: “I think the world has caught on to that, ‘Clarissa Shields can do whatever she can put her mind to’. Fighting at heavyweight is a challenge, but it’s no different to all the other challenges.
“Honestly, what fights have been like, ‘Clarissa gonna lose this fight’? I really haven’t experienced that; I’m the favourite in every fight. Maybe when everybody was convinced that Savannah [Marshall] was just this knockout puncher and she knocks everyone out, maybe that fight. People were saying that I wasn’t gonna win, but I never thought that.
“I never thought that no female that I been matched against was gonna beat me in a fight. So I think I’ll give Vanessa that same respect of thinking that, ‘You’re a heavyweight champion and you’ve fought as big as 213lbs or 231lbs’. But I am what I am, and that’s the greatest woman of all time – the greatest woman in any weight class.”
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