Claressa Shields' UK debut is live on Sky Sports next Saturday; old rival Franchon Crews-Dezurn is "the only woman who can take her to a [higher] level" but was once rejected by Simon Cowell!
Saturday 29 January 2022 07:26, UK
"You can't make it as a fighter and a singer," Franchon Crews-Dezurn was told as a contestant on American Idol, a withering put-down she used as fuel.
She still harbours a grudge against the man who said it.
"I need you to holla at Simon Cowell," Crews-Dezurns demands of Sky Sports, noticing the English accent and making assumptions. "Get in touch with him!"
She does a half-decent impersonation of Cowell to remember his response to her performance: "'Are you a boxer?'
"I said yes.
"'Well you can't be good at everything!'
"I told him if I don't win American Idol, I will win the middleweight championship of the world.
"I'm not middleweight, I'm super-middleweight champion, and soon to be undisputed!
"So I would love to have a quick conversation with him.
"I knew I was good enough on the inside. But he said: 'Don't do it'.
"That sparked a fire."
Simon Cowell's judgements have often been questionable, Crews-Dezurn is reminded. "It's cool," she rolls her eyes, "I take it in my stride, it's all good."
Music and boxing became intertwined when one inadvertently led to another.
"My goal was to become a world-famous singer but I was told to lose weight," she says.
"I was told I could lose five pounds by boxing.
"So my friend took me to a gym. I sparred, got my lip busted, and never left!"
A bloody lip is not likely to impress the American Idol panellists, it is suggested, but Crews-Dezurn has already forged her own path in two industries as a female blazing a trail.
"Definitely polar opposites, to sing and to box," she says.
"Singing, like boxing, is therapy for me. I still have aspirations for that.
"I have a couple of songs that I'm working on.
"Singing was my first love. It's just me. It's how I express myself when I'm not punching people."
Crews-Dezurn owns the WBC and WBO super-middleweight championship and will fight IBF and WBA titleholder Elin Cederroos to crown the division's first male or female undisputed champion.
"I would love to fight Franchon for all the belts at 160lbs or 168lbs," Claressa Shields tells Sky Sports.
Shields defeated Crews-Dezurn in 2016 in both women's professional debuts but they retain a close relationship - "we will fight then go out for dinner afterwards," says Crews-Dezurn.
Shields adds: "She's someone who comes to the ring, not for a pay cheque, but to win. She holds power and possesses skills.
"The fight that could change women's boxing overall would be Shields vs Crews 2.
"To fight again after all these years, this is the fight where people would say 'wow' like Marvin Hagler, 'Sugar' Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran.
"She's the only woman who can take me to a [higher] level.
"I would love to fight her for 12 rounds of three minutes. We would show the world that women can go at it.
"She's a tough opponent. She doesn't take no for an answer, no matter what you hit her with. And I'm the same way."
Shields was a two-time Olympic gold medallist but Crews-Dezurn was a decorated amateur too - in hindsight, it was a remarkable risk taken by both fighters for their pro debuts.
"'Crazy' is my middle name," says Crews-Dezurn. "I'm a risk taker.
"After our fight, you started seeing crazily competitive women's fights. Real fights.
"We didn't invent the wheel but we definitely refined it. It changed my life.
"She had to go through me to become what she is. I was always the top dog to beat.
"For the true fans who respect boxing, this is the biggest women's fight."
How would the rematch go?
"She would say she'd whup my ass, I say I'd whup her ass!"
History-making would be deeply personal for Crews-Dezurn, who lost her mother five years ago.
"It would mean a lot to my family," she says. "Becoming undisputed would make everything I went through with her [worthwhile]. She fought to live and I fight to win.
"I've already envisioned it so, when it happens, I want to experience it organically."
Her mother, though, was not always thrilled to know that her daughter would be a boxer.
But Crews-Dezurns lights up: "I was always a fighter, always a tomboy.
"My mum worried that my face would get messed up but I told her: 'I will hit them a lot more than they hit me!'
"She isn't a fan of violence. She only came to two of my fights as an amateur. She hated violence but supported how boxing was a tool to keep my life on track.
"I have experienced discipline and world travel, my mum liked how boxing moulded me as a person.
"So she didn't like violence but she loved the benefits of boxing."
It was her mother that instilled in her the drive "to be great at everything" and to challenge boundaries.
Crews-Dezurn cites other inspirations as Queen Latifah, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and Cher - "they didn't let anybody put them in a box".
She says about the nickname she carries into the ring: "The Heavy Hitting Diva is no gimmick, that's really who I am. The older I get, the more I get to know myself as a woman.
"Yes, I love to dress up. I love all types of things.
"But I'm a real fighter too, I'm really about that life. I train hard, I punch hard, I respect the sport.
"Some girls say: 'I'm a model but I want to box' - but they aren't really about this life. I have paid my dues."
Crews-Dezurn spent two miserable weeks without her super-middleweight world titles, assuming them lost in a fight against Alejandra Jimenez, the former heavyweight champion.
Then Jimenez failed a drug test, the belts were returned to their rightful owner and the result overturned but it was a chastening experience for Crews-Dezurn.
She says: "I'm not comfortable with where women's boxing it's at.
"It is growing. I am building my legacy and whatever mark I leave will hopefully push women's boxing forward.
"It will only get better. We will only get paid better."
The dream fight with Shields, her friend and rival, may happen one day but, more importantly, is Crews-Dezurn's first love.
She has a new song coming out.
"I had to prioritise training but I hit up the studio!"
Here's a song of hers called 'Limited Time' - Simon Cowell did not believe in her, but Crews-Dezurn is proving people wrong, one after the next.
Sunday January 30 in Tulsa
Robson Conceicao vs Xavier Martinez - WBC super-featherweight title eliminator
Nico Ali Walsh
Saturday February 5 in Cardiff
Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Williams
Claressa Shields vs Ema Kozin - IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles
Saturday February 19 in Manchester
Amir Khan vs Kell Brook
Natasha Jonas vs Ewa Piatkowska - WBO super-welterweight title
Frazer Clarke's pro debut
Saturday February 26 in Glasgow
Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall - undisputed super-lightweight titles
Nick Campbell vs Jay McFarlane - Scottish heavyweight title
Saturday March 5 in Fresno
Jose Ramirez vs Jose Pedraza
Sunday March 20 in New York
Edgar Berlanga vs Steve Rolls
Keyshawn Davis
Xander Zayas
