Key events
Joe Hicks has just scored an eighth-round TKO of Keon Papillion in the second-to-last undercard bout. The Grand Rapids super welterweight poured on the punishment over the second half before referee Steve Willis waved it off at the 1:35 mark in the seventh round of a scheduled eight-round scrap between undefeated prospects. According to Compubox’s punch statistics, Hicks landed 70 of 140 power shots. Solid work.
Hicks improves with 12-0 and eight wins by stoppage.
Claressa Shields is in the building. The WBC heavyweight champion arrived with special friend Papoose, the Brooklyn rapper, about an hour ago.
Preamble
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s undisputed women’s heavyweight championship bout between Claressa Shields and Danielle Perkins. Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-division champion, had no shortage of lucrative offers for this fight, where she will attempt to unify all four recognized world belts in a third different weight class. But when given the choice between a marquee venue like Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and a homecoming, she chose the Michigan city of Flint. “My dream is to fight at Barclays,” Shields said this week. “But the occasion calls for me to want to bring it back home because of the history of the fight – the first women’s undisputed championship at heavyweight.”
That decision is about more than just boxing. Shields has long been a symbol of Flint’s fighting spirit, a role cemented by her portrayal in The Fire Inside, a biopic released in December. A city once fueled by the auto industry, Flint has endured decades of economic decline, depopulation, and, most infamously, the water crisis that began in 2014 when lead contamination plagued its drinking supply. While officials insist the water is now safe and the city is making a comeback, many residents remain wary, and economic hardships persist.
Flint mayor Sheldon Neeley sees Shields as the embodiment of the city’s grit. “She really embodies the spirit of the city – coming from crisis to recovery,” he said. “It’s great that she chose her hometown to bring this great showcase here.”
A sellout crowd of 6,000 is expected tonight at Dort Financial Center, the home of the Ontario Hockey League’s Flint Firebirds, while thousands more will watch via Dazn. Shields (15-0, 3 KOs) is fresh off a dominant stoppage victory over Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse for the WBC’s version of the heavyweight title. She’s previously unified the four belts at both middleweight and light heavyweight.
Her opponent, Brooklyn’s Danielle Perkins (5-0, 2 KOs), a former college basketball player at St John’s University, is relishing the newfound attention. “I always have told Claressa that I do always appreciate everything that she’s done for boxing,” said Perkins, who hails from Brooklyn. “Her coming up to the heavyweight division is the best thing that could have ever happened to me in my entire life. No one at any point ever cared about this division until Claressa came up here.”
Stay with us for round-by-round updates, analysis and reaction from Flint, where Shields and Perkins should make their ringwalks in a little more than an hour’s time.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look at yesterday’s weigh-in.
