Shields-Habazin fight officially back on for January

The Women’s World Junior Middleweight title fight between Claressa Shields and Ivana Habazin that was cancelled the day before it was supposed to take place in October due to a bizarre assault at the weigh-in, is now back on officially.

This after Showtime confirmed Friday afternoon the two will meet in the rescheduled fight January 10th in Atlantic City:

#ShieldsHabazin rescheduled for Jan. 10th LIVE on @Showtime.@Claressashields looks to become fastest 3-division champ in boxing history. pic.twitter.com/fO1WUlXnIB

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) November 15, 2019

Ryan O’Hara of Fightnews.com first reported that the bout would be rescheduled for January after Habazin’s trainer James Bashir Ali was assaulted at the weigh-in on October 4th in Flint, Michigan.

As we wrote about at the time, video from earlier at the weigh-in revealed Ali in a dispute with another unidentified person, who was standing next to Shields. Bashir Ali and that person, now identified as Shields’ sister, were separated from the argument and things appeared to cool down.

However, a couple of minutes later is when the adult male, who has now been identified as 28 year old Artis Mack, ran up to Bashir Ali and knocked him unconscious with one punch. Mack is Shields’ brother and is still in custody in Flint, Michigan, on an assault charge.

Bashir Ali was unconscious for several minutes with paramedics attending to him. And, a bizarre scene ensued with his fighter, Habazin, crying in hysterics over him. She left with the ambulance to take Bashir Ali to the hospital, where he had facial surgery for several fractures.

Showtime then announced the cancellation of the fight, which was to have headlined the network’s fight card from Shields’ hometown.

The re-scheduled fight will be part of a Showtime card for January, but it’s unclear, if it will be the main event.

The 24 year old Shields is 9-0 with 2 KOs and Habazin is 20-3, a former World Champion and ranked #1 by two of the World governing bodies. The fight was already postponed earlier in 2019, when Shields suffered a badly sprained ankle and had to stop training.