What To Know:
- Leading boxing news about multiple championship matchups is today’s announcement from multi-division undisputed champion Claressa Shields about her return at middleweight on August 15 in Atlanta, her first middleweight fight since 2023.
- Joe Cordina is out of the July 4 main event title fight against Abdullah Mason. Cordina was denied a U.S. visa. Undefeated Albert Bell will step in.
- Talks are reported underway to secure a WBA welterweight title fight between champion Rolly Romero and challenger Teofimo Lopez.
Claressa Shields Returns – And Cris Cyborg Isn’t Happy About It
Undisputed heavyweight champion and top pound-for-pound women’s boxer Claressa Shields of Flint, Michigan, announced her return to the ring on Wednesday via her social media channels. The 31-year-old Shields is scheduled for the main event at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Saturday, August 15.
Shields will be the first female athlete to headline a sporting event at the venue.
The surprise came when Shields (18-0, 3 KOs) announced she would return to the middleweight division to face unified WBC and WBA middleweight champion Kaye Scott of Australia (5-1-1). This will be Shields’ first fight at 160 pounds since 2023. Shields has made four defenses of her heavyweight titles, most recently in a February decision win over Franchón Crews-Dezurn.
Shields has struggled to find challengers on her level in the higher weight divisions in women”s boxing, where there isn’t a critical mass of talent.
Scott is a 42-year-old Australian former amateur boxing standout with a minimal professional resume. Her selection drew some criticism, particularly from the standpoint of potential challengers who have been more than willing to take Shields on if the champion was willing to drop down a few divisions, such as current unified super welterweight champion Mikaela Mayer.
One challenger who made her irritation known is MMA superstar Cris Cyborg, who posted her response to the news.
😳🤣
This was why I’m returning to MMA instead of boxing @Claressashields ?!
So she could box a 42 year old with a 5-1 record while calling me old and washed up?! https://t.co/3KgrcGZyvu https://t.co/uqIhhKwvtq
— CrisCy₿org.Com (@criscyborg) June 24, 2026
Mayer, who is also Shields’ former U.S. Olympic teammate, has long said she would be willing to move up to middleweight to challenge Shields. Mayer recently announced she will face WBO Super Welterweight champion Chantelle Cameron in a championship unification bout in Birmingham, England on August 29.
Joe Cordina Out, Albert Bell In against Abdullah Mason on July 4
For the second time in two weeks, a championship title challenger was denied a visa to enter the United States. This week, the news came from Top Rank that Joe Cordina of Wales would not face Abdullah Mason of Cleveland (20-0, 17 KOs) in his first WBO World Lightweight title defense on a card set for July 4 in Mason’s hometown of Cleveland.
Top Rank president Carl Moretti said in a social media post, “apparently a criminal issue serious enough to deny entry” came up, adding, “It wasn’t an issue when the fight was made.”
Cordina’s replacement will be American Albert Bell, who, like Mason, is from Ohio (28-0, 9 KOs). Bell was starting his training camp for a planned July 18 matchup against Andy Cruz, a Cuba native based in Miami. Matchroom Boxing will now find another opponent for Cruz.
“This was not planned, and thankfully Bell is more than ready to step in,” said Moretti.
The fight card is notable as the first to air on TNT under its agreement with DAZN to air select cards on traditional cable television in a series called “The Fight.”
Cordina took to his social media to explain what happened from his perspective.
Last week, Golden Boy Boxing found itself scrambling when a visa couldn’t be secured after two months of effort for Joey Canoy of the Philippines, who was supposed to challenge unified minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo in Oceanside, California. Golden Boy President Eric Gomez said the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which oversees visas, has become much more difficult to work with, given the current political environment.
It’s a shame the 34-year-old Welshman Cordina won’t be available, as he would present a solid challenge to the 23-year-old champion Mason.
Rolly Romero and Teofimo Lopez Talking About August Matchup
WBA World Welterweight champion Rolly Romero has been rumored as an opponent for a half-dozen challengers since he defeated Ryan Garcia in May 2025 to win his title.
Now, the leading contender appears to be Teofimo Lopez. The pair have been reported by multiple outlets to have verbally agreed to an August date in Las Vegas.
Lopez won a title fight at super lightweight against Arnold Barboza Jr. on the same Times Square card as Romero. He then lost the title in a challenge against Shakur Stevenson on January 31.
Lopez was then ordered to fight for the vacant IBF super lightweight title against unbeaten Canadian Arthur Biyarslanov. as the mandatory challenger. Instead, Lopez declined and will instead move up to the welterweight division, potentially to fight Romero for his belt.
If a deal is reached, the fight will be the main event of a PBC on Prime Video PPV card.
Lopez’s manager, Keith Connolly, told Ring Magazine he recently held meetings with both Zuffa Boxing and DAZN Boxing about Lopez, who is currently a free agent not signed by any promoter.
“I think you could hear some huge news about him in the next week and a half to two weeks,” said Connolly, who has brokered deals for multiple clients with Zuffa Boxing, including Edgar Berlanga, Richardson Hitchins, and Conor Benn. “There will be a bigger announcement than people think coming.”
Gayle Falkenthal is an award-winning boxing journalist with more than four dozen awards for both written and video coverage from the Boxing Writers Association of America, Society of Professional Journalists, and San Diego Press Club, where she is the past president. She is the only woman journalist who is a full voting member of the BWAA. She is the Boxing Editor for NY Fights based in San Diego, California.