Claressa Shields is a unique fighter – an undisputed champion, with titles in multiple weight classes, MMA experience and a shot at a fourth weight class title later this month.
She will challenge Vanessa Lepage-Joanis for the WBC heavyweight championship in Detroit.
Only two athletes have won Olympic gold medals in the middleweight division – Shields in 2012 and 2016, and Wales' Lauren Price, who won most recently at the Tokyo Olympics.
Price dropped down to welterweight after the Olympics and is only seven fights into her professional career, but has already won the inaugural British Women's Title and the WBA World Title.
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Lauren Price beat Jessica McCaskill on points to win the WBA World title and said it was the start of many more big nights in Cardiff.
Shields hasn't ruled out Price as a potential rival in the future.
“It's hard to predict failure for an Olympic champion. She won the 2021 Olympics,” Shields said. Sky Sports.
“Someone who has travelled the world boxing and won world championships seems destined to achieve greatness in the professional world. I wish her the best of luck.”
The two likely won't clash anytime soon, with Price having plenty of ambitions to realise at welterweight and Shields moving up a weight class for the Lepage vs. Joanis fight.
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Lauren Price reflects on her victory over Jessica McCaskill to become Wales' first female boxing world champion and discusses what's next for her boxing career.
But the heavyweight division is what the WBC calls its 12th 7-pound weight class, or light heavyweight (the bout also has the WBO light heavyweight title on the line).
Shields has competed in multiple weight classes, including super welterweight and super middleweight, but his natural weight class is middleweight.
Price's greatest amateur success came at middleweight, where she won World, European and Olympic gold medals, and along the way she also defeated the light heavyweight world champion at 75 kg.
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Lauren Price received a fantastic welcome from fans after becoming Wales' first female boxing world champion.
Shields doesn't believe the current weight class will necessarily close the gap between the two.
“She's a two-time Olympic champion at 165 pounds, just like me, so if she wants to fight, I'd love to fight her,” Shields said.
“I believe anything is possible and I'm willing to fight anyone who wants to fight me. So if Lauren Price keeps winning and moves up to 154, 160, 168 pounds, we can fight and prove who is the best Olympic champion.”
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Lauren Price defeats Jessica McCaskill to win the WBA Welterweight World Title
Shields' biggest rival is fellow Briton Savannah Marshall – the American beat her in a rivalry bout in 2022 – but Marshall is also competing in MMA with a view to a rematch with Shields.
“I beat her in England in front of 20,000 fans. She needs to come to America and fight me in front of 20,000 of my fans and see if she can handle the boos, the national anthem boos and people telling her she's no good!” Shields declared.
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Savannah Marshall talks about her rematch with Claressa Shields and whether she'd like to see it in a boxing ring or an MMA cage
“I want to fight her again and prove to her that I'm not just once better than you, but twice as good inside the cage and twice as good inside the ring. I don't care which.”
But first, Shields has the more pressing task of winning yet another honor against Lepage-Joanis.
“I'm going to win my fourth weight class,” she said. “It would make big history.”
