As BoxingScene.com previously reported, undisputed middleweight champion Claressa Shields will return to the ring on June 3rd in Detroit, in a rematch with Hannah Gabriel.
Shields will be looking to build on last year’s impressive decision win over career rival Savannah Marshall.
Earlier in the year, there was plenty of talk regarding a potential fight between Shields and unified junior middleweight world champion Natasha Jonas.
An offer was put on the table – and ultimately rejected by Jonas and her handlers.
Jonas’ manager and trainer, Joe Gallagher, detailed the scenario last month.
“If I’m selling you a 10 grand car, if I offer you a grand it doesn’t mean you’ve got to take it and that’s the same thing. Like Tasha says, you’ve made me an offer but the offer wasn’t good enough. It’s not in her control, it’s in their control. So if they want to come back and make her a better offer, the fight can be done. You’ve got to understand it from Natasha’s point of view. That’s the biggest, hottest fight to be made in world boxing at the moment, the two in-form fighters. It’s a huge task and challenge for Natasha,” Gallagher told Sky Sports.
According to Shields, Jonas was attempting to secure a seven-figure payday in order to take the fight.
Shields does not believe Jonas had done enough to earn that kind of money for a fight.
“She was asking for retirement money, that’s why [the fight didn’t happen]. She acted like she needed to get paid a million dollars to fight against me,” Shields told The DAZN Boxing Show.
“Natasha Jonas is not known here in America. I’m known in both the UK and America that’s why I get paid the way that I do. I guess she’s a big star over there, maybe, but she hasn’t put in the groundwork to be asking for the kind of money she was asking for. We were asking for a world title fight; we weren’t asking for a fight to help her retire and take care of her family.”