Claressa Shields’ middleweight title fight against Ema Kozin has been rescheduled to February 5th.
Shields was initially supposed to fight the Slovenian on January 29th at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff but Great Britain’s boxing commission suspended the sport for the whole of this month.
The British Boxing Board of Control said it made the decision based on advice from the organisation’s medical panel.
Robert W. Smith, the Boxing Board of Control’s general secretary said: "Following advice from the British Boxing Board of Control Medical Panel, Boxing tournaments under the jurisdiction of the BBBofC will be suspended for the month of January.
"A further review by the Medical Panel and Stewards will take place prior to the planned recommencement of Boxing in February."
Shields will fight on the undercard of the Chris Eubank vs Liam Williams main-event, which has now been rescheduled for the second time.
Williams was due to face Eubank on December 11th 2021 but suffered a recurrence of the shoulder injury he sustained in a world title fight against Demetrius Andrade last April.
For Shields, this will be her first boxing contest since March 2021, when she retained her middleweight titles against Marie-Eve Dicaire.
Since then, the American has transitioned to MMA and had two professional fights –– winning the first one, before losing the second via split decision.
Some boxers, including light-middleweight champion Katie Taylor, have questioned Shields’ decision to try and compete in two sports.
“It’s very, very hard for anyone in boxing to cross over because obviously, we have no ground game,” she told the MMA Hour.
“If anybody got me to the ground, for example, it would be a huge problem for me. I think obviously you always have a puncher’s chance maybe, but it’s a priority — it’s very, very hard to stay on your feet. So I think it was an admirable challenge for her to take on. But I would love for her just to focus on boxing now.”
Shields is considered one of the greatest female boxers of the modern era and is undefeated in 12 professional fights.
Meanwhile, her opponent Kozin is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WIBA middleweight title since 2017 and the WIBA super-middleweight title since 2018.
As of September 2020, she is ranked as the sixth-best active middleweight by BoxRec.
Like Shields, Kozin is undefeated and has 21 wins and one draw from her 22 fights.
A win for Shields in February would likely set up a contest against arch-rival Savannah Marshall, who has held the WBO middleweight title since October 2020.