Pound-for-pound No. 1 draws 16,000 in Atlanta, remains undefeated

Champions and former champions are setting dates for their return on the summer fight schedule including Tyson Fury and Claressa Shields.

There were no scale fails in Atlanta on Friday as Claressa Shields (18-0, 3 KOs) and Kaye Scott (5-1-1) stepped on the scales, making their unified middleweight title fight official for Saturday night on DAZN. Although Scott is the unified middleweight champion, she is the heavy betting underdog heading into fight night, as this appears to be headed towards a unanimous decision win for Shields on Saturday night. If Shields wins as expected, it’ll be interesting to see what she does next, as opponents continue to become fewer and fewer for someone of her talent.

What is next for Claressa Shields? Shields reclaimed the unified women’s middleweight title after stopping Kaye Scott in the sixth round in a main event bout at State Farm Arena. Shields, one of the greatest of her era, has had one overarching issue throughout her career – she is too good. She stopped Nikki Adler to win the unified super middleweight title in her fourth fight. A couple of years later, she beat Christina Hammer to win the unified middleweight titles, and then, nearly four years ago, she beat her biggest career rival, Savannah Marshall, in her most competitive fight.

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What is at stake when the ‘GWOAT’ Claressa Shields faces Kaye Scott on Saturday at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta? Shields (18-0, 3 KOs) is moving back down to women’s middleweight after a run through the super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight ranks over the past two years. Scott (5-1-1) will be looking to make the first defense of her title after claiming the belt. Let’s look at the main story of the bout. The Story of The Fight Shields is back in a division with some exciting match-ups. In the higher weight classes, it was hard to feel the same excitement for her bouts.

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It’s fight week in Atlanta, Georgia, as women’s undisputed heavyweight champion Claressa Shields is once again moving down to middleweight to face unified champion Kaye Scott at the State Farm Arena, live on DAZN. This will be Shields’ (18-0, 3 KOs) second fight in 2026, following a dominant, one-sided unanimous decision over Franchon Crews-Dezurn in February. With the level of opponents thin for Shields at heavyweight, she had to look to the lower weight divisions to take on the best available opponent. That fighter is the 42-year-old Scott (5-1-1) from Sydney, Australia, who is the current WBC and WBA middleweight champion.

Middleweight Troy Isley will renew his amateur rivalry with Joseph Hicks. The bout was added to the August 15 women’s middleweight title fight between Claressa Shields and Kaye Scott, which will take place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Isley, 16-0 (6 KOs), knows Hicks well; he lost to him at the 2020 Olympic Trials in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Yet, due to the pandemic, Isley would get to represent the United States in the 2020 Olympics based on his 2019 ranking, as the qualifiers were unable to take place.