Claressa Shields vs Ivana Habazin Odds & Picks

• Shields vs Habazin goes Friday, January 10th at 11:00 pm EST
• Can Shields continue to add to her already impressive legacy?
• Will Habazin shock the world and disrupt the women’s pound for pound boxing hierarchy?

Shields vs Habazin emanates from Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There will be two belts up for grabs at 154 lbs with the vacant WBC world super welterweight title and the vacant WBO world super welterweight title.

It’s not the only championship fight scheduled for this Showtime card but Shields vs Habazin does top the marquee. The oddsmakers see things exactly the same as the last time these two were slated to fight.  There are a lot of intriguing variables at play when looking at this ten-round contest. The odds for this prizefight and my sweet science analysis are below.

Shields vs Habazin Odds

Odds taken Jan. 5.

Earlier attempts to get these two in a ring together proved to be fruitless. Both of the previous bouts were scheduled to take place in Shields’ hometown of Flint, Michigan but they’ll be going out of state with this attempt.

Former welterweight champion Habazin is moving up in weight while Shields is dropping down post-middleweight championship victory. Claressa Shields has adhered to a regimented, meatless diet that allowed her to hit 154 lbs as she weighed in for their October effort. I think Shields has a number of elements to her approach that will guide her to victory here.

Shields Acquires More Gold

Claressa Shields has rebounded from dislocating her knee and T-Rex is now ready to go. Shields has the chance to make history here, or HER-story as Shields’ team has branded her campaign for gold. She is looking to become the fastest boxer, male or female, to capture titles in three different divisions.

The desire to make history and carve out her legacy does not stop there for Shields. Shields has also indicated a pronounced level of interest in taking on dual division UFC champion Amanda Nunes. Both in the boxing ring and within the UFC octagon.

Claressa Shields says she believes she and Amanda Nunes will fight to prove who the best is. Here is a bit from the scrum she's doing with media right now. pic.twitter.com/uX1ozAjaRb

— Heidi Fang (@HeidiFang) December 15, 2019

As was mentioned earlier, this bout was supposed to go down in late 2019. In fact, the fight has been canceled twice and announced on three different occasions. An injury to Shields scrapped the fight in August with the circumstances around the second cancellation being much worse. People from the Shields and Habazin camps got into a physical altercation with Habazin’s nearly 70-year-old trainer getting his jaw and orbital bone broken.

The severity is such that Shields’ brother, the person who inflicted the damage, could be in prison for up to ten years. This has obviously added a tremendous amount of bad blood to Shields vs Habazin which was already volatile to begin with.

Shields vs Habazin Tale of the Tape

The two time Olympic gold medalist simply has a better overall resume than Habazin. Ivana Habazin has nowhere near the experience at that championship level that Claressa Shields does. Claressa Shields is aiming to secure a knockout in this fight. It has been close to two and a half years since Shields has scored a knockout. Habazin has a single stoppage loss among her three defeats.

Worth noting though, the lone stoppage was in her last defeat (since going on a five-fight win streak after that April 2016 loss). I think the likeliest outcome is Claressa Shields winning via lopsided unanimous decision when the bell rings for Shields vs Habazin.

Pick: Claressa Shields (-10000)