McCaskill Made ‘Disheartening’ Sacrifice To Accept Price Fight

Jessica McCaskill sacrificed her WBC welterweight title to instead pursue Saturday’s fight with Lauren Price. 

They contest McCaskill’s WBA title at the Cardiff International Arena in Wales, on the occasion of the 29-year-old Price’s first world-title fight, and the seventh fight of her professional career.

The American had, however, been on course to fight Croatia’s Ivana Habazin on April 20 in Zagreb, but her determination to instead fight Price means she has since had to watch the title she worked for fall into a rival’s hands.

McCaskill had been the WBC champion since her victory in 2020 over Cecilia Braekhus, but after Habazin, the mandatory challenger to that title, defeated Kinga Magyar, also on April 20, a new title reign began.

“I was supposed to fight Habazin about a year ago,” the 39 year old said. “She was mandatory for the WBC, and the whole fight went to a purse bid. Preparing for the fight, and it was going to be on a Matchroom card. Cecilia backed out of the fight – she was supposed to fight Terri Harper – so my opponent got given away to someone else, so that mandatory didn’t happen.

“Fast forward to now – she fought Harper and lost – she’s still my mandatory, and we were making the fight, getting all the details and everything, and we were offered the Lauren Price fight and it just seemed like a better opportunity, so in order to take this fight I did have to vacate my WBC title. I believe Habazin got paid – but I just wanted to make sure that I was gonna fight top-quality people. I obviously love coming to the UK to fight in front of the fans, so this is the opportunity we decided on.

“I’ve always had to give up my belts. I was asked, when [in 2020] I was in the 140 class and was going to move up to 147 to fight Cecilia, to give up my belts by the WBA and the WBC. I gave up my WBA because I figured, ‘The WBC [belt] is what everyone looks for’; the WBC then vacated me. No notice; just found out that Chantelle [Cameron] was fighting for my belts so then I had no belts. Then I vacated the WBO, which Sandy Ryan has – she had the chance to fight for that. Now I have to vacate the WBC. No one’s ever taken a belt from me. I’ve vacated them. But those are like my babies – I don’t like to give those up. It’s disheartening.

“For it to be my first belt, and to have to give it away and to have it for so long, it is a sad thing. To figure out, 

‘How am I going to go back and get that?’. You don’t want those things to distract you. It’s disheartening and it’s a mind boggle because you want to get back and get it.”

McCaskill, who has previously lost to Katie Taylor and Chantelle Cameron and twice beaten Braekhus, was then asked if the purse to fight Price is bigger than it would have been against Habazin, and she responded: “Yes it is.

“I can’t imagine Croatia getting packed out for a female fight. I could be very wrong. But it’s guaranteed that it’s gonna happen here, in Wales.  

“This is a really great match-up and a great situation to be in. Boxing is so much about sacrifice. 

“She’s had Olympic experience. She’s played multiple sports. She’s an all-round athlete. She has a great team behind her; she has the pedigree that other fighters don’t have.

“She says she wasn’t tested. That could be something that is lacking for her. She might not have that same vibe after fights – just feel like, ‘I did that’. Nothing was challenging; she won every single round. So there could be something she’s missing and a fold in the armour there.”