Showtime Championship Boxing will air a special live broadcast on Friday with a three fight event from the Ocean Casino Resort in New Jersey.
The main event will feature Claressa Shields vs. Ivana Habazin for the women’s WBC and WBO light middleweight titles. Undefeated rising welterweight star Jaron Ennis will fight Bakhtiyar Eyubov in a 10-round co-feature, and WBA women’s super middleweight champion Alicia Napoleon Espinosa will take on IBF champion Elin Cederroos in a unification bout that will open the broadcast.
Claressa Shields (9-0, 2 KOs) two-time Olympic gold medalist and former super middleweight and middleweight world champion was originally scheduled to face Ivana Habazin (20-3, 7 KOs) on October 5, 2019 in her hometown of Flint, Michigan but the championship bout was canceled when a member of Shields entourage sucker punched James Bashir Ali the elderly trainer of Habazin, leaving him unconscious.
Later it was reported that Bashir Ali developed a brain bleed from the brutal punch and had to be taken back to the hospital.
The fighters eventually agreed to reschedule the fight for January in New Jersey.
Habazin who held the IBF welterweight title vowed to make Shields pay for what happen to her coach, an Shields is looking to make history as a three division world champion.
Undefeated welterweight sensation Jaron Ennis (24-0, 22 KOs) of Philadelphia will be in for a tough fight when he takes on heavy handed Bakhtiyar Eyubov (14-1-1, 12 KOs).
Ennis has a high knockout ratio and so does his opponent Eyubov. The fight has a high possibility of ending in a stoppage given their knockout percentages. This will be a 10 rounder and it will be a good step up for Ennis who is quickly rising the ranks in the 147-pound division.
The first fight of the special Showtime broadcast will be a women’s title unification bout. The WBA Super Middleweight Champion Alicia Napoleon Espinosa (12-1, 7 KOs) from New York will go up against the undefeated IBF Super Middleweight Champion Elin Cederroos (7-0, 4 KOs) of Sweden.
Fight Card
Women’s WBC, WBO Light Middleweight Championship – Claressa Shields vs. Ivana Habazin
Welterweight – Jaron Ennis vs. Bakhtiyar Eyubov
Women’s WBA Super Middleweight Championship – Alicia Napoleon Espinosa vs. Elin Cederroos
Friday, January 10, 2019 at 9PM ET/6PM PT on SHOWTIME and live streamed on the Showtime App available for download on Apple and Android.
