American Claressa Shields voted the best female boxer on the planet for the past two years is planning to visit Cape Town, at a time when South Africa commemorates Women's Month in August.
As of October 2022, ESPN, the American cable sports channel, and The Ring, the 'Bible of Boxing' declared Shields the world’s top pound-for-pound women’s boxer.
Shields rued the missed opportunity to attend the recent WBF Convention in Cape Town because of a fight engagement. Her publicists are busy with a promotional movie which brings Shields' fight for gender equality for women to the fore.
Shields will look to meet with women's groups during her stay in the Mother City.
There is also every prospect that Shields may fight in Africa in the future. She has made no secret of her desire to fight on the 'Mother Continent' and she has the backing of her manager Dimitri Salita.
The Ukraine-born American promoter Salita was recently inducted into the New York Boxing Hall of Fame. He ranks among the powerful boxing promoters in the USA and has struck up a working relationship with Howard Goldberg, the president of the WBF (World Boxing Federation).
He will be looking at opportunities for Shields to fight in Africa but securing a deal for the world’s female No 1 boxer is a daunting task.
Salita said his journey with Shields has been an incredible one, and now that Shields has reached the pinnacle of women's boxing, she dreams of fighting in Africa just like the great Muhammad Ali.
Shields holds the record for becoming a two and three-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights.
"I now promote the Shields who is known as the greatest woman boxer of all time," said Salita. "She is now known as the GWOAT (greatest woman of all time) Claressa Shields.
"What an incredible journey it’s been, and we want the next step of it to be in Africa!"
He said boxing changed his life in his adopted country, the USA.
"Growing up in poverty and going through challenges of immigration I saw boxing as my gift and a tool to make a better life for myself," said Salita.
"As an amateur, I won the USA Nationals and then the Golden Gloves in Madison Square Garden winning the Sugar Ray Robinson Award given to the outstanding boxer of the tournament.
"After that, I turned professional with an eye on winning the world title one day.
" I finally got my shot in 2008 when I fought and won the WBF World title at Madison Square Garden live on HBO on the undercard of Roy Jones Jr vs Joe Calzaghe.