Spirits are high in the Franchon Crews-Dezurn camp. The 38-year-old is logging the miles the hard way, grinding through an eight-hour haul from Baltimore to Detroit, where the stakes don’t get much higher than Sunday night. Waiting at the other end: A showdown with hometown juggernaut Claressa Shields, with boxing’s women’s undisputed heavyweight crown on the line.
Inside the car, surrounded by the familiar faces who’ve marched through every camp and every war with her, Crews-Dezurn steals a rare quiet moment. The road stretches endlessly ahead, more than 500 miles of asphalt and reflection. She watches it roll by through the window.
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“It’s a good way to just get your mind together,” the WBA and WBC unified super middleweight champion admits to Uncrowned, five days out from a rematch that has been a decade in the making. “It’s a good road trip with the team, you know? We’re able to have plenty of fun along the way.”
Her smile is bright, complementing her typically vivid hair and trademark oversized sunglasses, but there’s irritation in her tone of voice. Her promoter, Dmitry Salita — who also promotes her opponent on Sunday — has recently claimed that Crews-Dezurn has a “chip on her shoulder” in regards to being compared to Shields. He also stated that she just “wants to be respected” — something the Baltimore fighter agrees with.
“We’re just in different lanes,” Crews-Dezurn explains of herself and Shields. “I don’t have a chip on my shoulder at all. She is her, and I am me. I guess I am more disappointed in the promotion of the fight as a whole. Baby, I ain’t no fill-in — not just another opponent for Claressa. I am a former undisputed super middleweight champion and the current unified one, so I am not sure things should be as biased towards her.”
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Crews-Dezurn believes Shields has Salita dancing to her own tune — quite literally, he joined the “G.W.O.A.T” in a recent TikTok dance. But it’s a two-way relationship. Shields decided to stay with the same promoter that she started with, signing a historic minimum guaranteed $8 million multi-fight partnership with Salita Promotions and Wynn Records at the end of 2025.
“I’m one of Salita’s premier fighters,” Crews-Dezurn continues. “One of the only champions on the roster, so it’s just a bit strange how I have been kept at arms length from some of the promotional stuff. I ask myself: What am I here for? They will happily post fight posters and not even tag me in it. Why would you not want to utilize an established champion’s name? I ain’t no journeyman, no stepping stone or no tune-up. This is all being done just to get in my head.
“But the game is the game. And we are all just pieces in the game. She’s playing her part, and I’m playing mine. I understood that from an early age. During the Team USA years, it was clear that she [Shields] was going to be the future, so I tried my best to act like a mentor to her. I helped to make her more marketable as well, so long gone are the days that I could be considered jealous of Claressa.
“I even helped style her for some of her fights,” Crews-Dezurn adds. The Baltimore fighter famously spent $25 to purchase a sewing machine off Craigslist when she was in her twenties, igniting a passion for fashion. “About five of her outfits have been designed by myself. She’s likened our relationship in the past to Serena and Venus Williams, which is cool — and hey, I guess you can fight your big sister!”
Franchon Crews-Dezurn’s relationship with Claressa Shields (pictured, left) dates back to before even the 2012 Olympic Games.
(Scott Heavey via Getty Images)
Half a year before the Olympic flame was lit at London 2012, then-teenager Shields started forcing her way into the wider boxing conversation.
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At just age 16, when most prospects were still sparring in the shadows and learning the small disciplines of the craft, Shields walked into the furnace of the USA Olympic trials. Standing opposite her was the established standard-bearer — national champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn — older, physically mature, and expected to brush aside the challenger on youth alone.
Instead, the bout flipped the script. Shields fought with a maturity that belied her age, dictating pace, choosing her moments, and dismantling assumptions round by round. It wasn’t merely an upset, it was an announcement. That night didn’t just earn her a result, it gave her direction.
Momentum gathered quickly. By the time the Games arrived, she no longer looked like a hopeful entrant but a fully-formed contender. In London, Shields claimed Olympic gold and the rivalry with Crews-Dezurn deepened. They met twice more as amateurs, each contest adding another layer of familiarity and competitive edge — both ending with Shields’ hand raised.
When both women crossed into the professional code in 2016, matchmaking wasted no time in reconnecting their paths. Their debut nights in Las Vegas brought them face-to-face yet again, and still the pattern held. Shields controlled the terms, managed the distance and preserved her unbeaten run over a rival who had become a career-long measuring stick.
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Years removed from that first collision, both fighters now arrive with decorated résumés and heavier significance attached to every punch. Titles, pride and unfinished business hang over the rematch, as one champion looks to reinforce her rule and one challenger looks to finally change the ending of a rivalry that has followed them.
But what has changed in the decade that has passed?
Franchon Crews-Dezurn has won plenty of hardware since turning pro.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“You’re getting a complete fighter this time,” Crews-Dezurn says. “Obviously we both have way more experience now, and now I’ve had a whole camp to prepare rather than being given two-weeks notice off the couch.
“It’s just taken a long time to get us in the ring together again, it should have been sooner. They didn’t want to risk her trajectory by going in with me again, which I understand — they basically wanted to age me out. She could have easily fought me at 168 [pounds] where I have been champion for years, but no.
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“Of course we are not as close as we once were — that’s only natural,” Crews-Dezurn adds. “She’s a close acquaintance to me, and we’re cool, but we’re also professionals. It’s OK to have changed, and I accept that. She has to deal with a lot of fame now and it’s bound to have an impact on her. She’s moved to a different space and I’ve given her that space and grace to do so.”
Crews-Dezurn speaks with maturity. A woman completely comfortable in her own skin. This confidence can aid the knowledge and understanding of a fighter’s limits in the ring, and her approach to Sunday’s fight is unsurprising.
“I have all I need to win this fight,” she says. “I haven’t eaten my way up in weight — I’ve tried to put on a bit of muscle to aid my power, but here’s the thing: I’m contracted to weigh-in under 175 pounds, so I can’t go crazy. Which is still perplexing to me, as I didn’t know that heavyweight had a weight limit — but I guess I have to just be grateful for the opportunity. Think of fighters in the past like Sonya Lamonakis who fought at 240 pounds plus!”
Fighting in Shields’ backyard means the pressure and expectations are firmly on the shoulders of the Detroit fighter, and Crews-Dezurn is happy to be in that position. Just don’t call her the “B-side” of Sunday’s fight.
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“I ain’t no B-side, baby, I never have been and never will be,” she says with a cackle. “I don’t know how the betting thing works, but apparently my odds are crazy to win this fight. I’m being completely overlooked — they are even starting to talk about Shields’ next fights already, whether that’s [Mikaela] Mayer or [Shadasia] Green. It seems crazy to me, but I’m cool.
“I can’t beat the media, I can’t beat the machine, but I can beat her.”
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