Top 10 fights in women’s boxing that I’d like to see.
Simple enough. There’s a bunch of really good fighters floating around right now in women’s boxing and great fights to be made. Here are 10 fights I’d really like to see get made and that haven’t been signed yet as far as I’m aware.
Claressa Shields vs Savannah Marshall - This is basically the only fight for either woman. At least until Lauren Price turns pro. Marshall is the only woman to have ever beaten Shields, but that was when Shields was 17 almost a decade ago. Shields has proven to be the most dominant woman in boxing to date this far, winning the undisputed title in two weight classes. Marshall has captured a world title at middleweight and has established herself as the most dangerous finisher in the sport currently with an 80% KO rate.
Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano - The two women with the most money behind them in the sport. Taylor is arguably the best P4P in the sport and Serrano is not too far behind her. It’s be the unified super lightweight champion vs the 7 division champion going for her record tying 8th. A slick combination puncher vs a stalking wrecking ball power puncher. You can’t really ask for more out of this one. Word on the curb is that we’ll see it in 2022 but they said that in 2019/2020 so I won’t hold my breath.
Katie Taylor vs Chantelle Cameron/Mary McGee - Should the Serrano fight fail to materialize, this is the next best thing. Cameron and McGee are going to face off this month for 140lb supremacy and with Taylor all but clearing out 135lbs, it’d make sense for her to move up and challenge the winner since they all fight for Hearn. Would be a tremendous fight.
Naoko Fujioka vs Marlen Esparza - Fujioka made her US debut recently, beating out Mexican Sulem Urbina. It was a tremendous milestone in a storied career that is still chugging along at 44 years old. Insane. To really solidify her status as an All Time Great in the minds of non-Japanese boxing fans, I’d love to see Fujioka face off with a “big-time” American talent like Olympic Bronze Medalist Marlen Esparza. It’s a great fight on paper and I’d be down to see Fujioka get one relatively big payday before hanging them up like she has talked about.
Lourdes Juarez vs Yessica Chavez - I like that RIng Magazine is putting in the effort to cover women’s boxing finally but the fact that 0 women in the P4P are from Mexico is a crime. Mexico has been holding down boxing’s toughest divisions for decades, long before women could call themselves “Olympians”. And Lourdes Juarez is the latest in a long line of amazing women talent from the country. Hasn’t lost since 2014 while fighting some of the best in the world at super flyweight and below. Crazy. And Yessica Chavez, while she isn’t my fav, has got names on her resume and world titles. And yet they’ve never fought. Rectify that.
Seniesa Estrada vs Tina Rupprecht - I want to see Estrada start to unify and Rupprecht is a damn good boxer with a world title, undefeated, and who’s the same age as Estrada. Makes sense to me.
Seniesa Estrada vs Yokasta Valle - Basically see #6. At least Valle has talked about wanting to fight Estrada though.
Katie Taylor vs Estelle Mossely - a rematch from the amateur days. While Taylor has like 3 or 4 wins over Mossely, Mossely is one of the last two women to have beaten Taylor on the amateur scene. Mossely hasn’t been other worldly as a pro, but this is the type of fight I see her getting up for.
Delfine Persoon vs Maiva Hamadouche/Mikaela Mayer winner - Mayer-Hamadouche would have been on this list had they not signed the contract. Instead, I want to see the winner test themselves against a proven elite boxer with P4P skills in Persoon. There’s a lot of talk about unification and a potential WBSS tournament at this weight class but if that falls apart, this is the one I’d like to see.
Jackie Nava vs Segolene Lefebvre - Talking about the Mexican women again, Jackie Nava is one of those women who have been holding it down for Mexico for 20 years now. At 41, she still turning away these younger women rather impressively and hasn’t lost since 2011. Lefebrve is amongst the youngest at the upper echelons of super bantamweight, is undefeated, and has the WBO title. I want to see if Nava has enough left in the tank to add another world title to her collection or if Lefebvre has what it takes to be an elite fighter.
Anne Wolfe vs Laila Ali exhibition - Triller was able to give us the fight between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr, why not this fantasy match up? And unlike RJJ, I think both women are relatively healthy. So why not give them a big money fight to go out on?
