New Jersey boxing commissioner Larry Hazzard and promoter Dmitriy Salita have taken several security precautions to ensure nothing unusual happens when Claressa Shields and Ivana Habazin attempt to weigh in again Thursday in Atlantic City.
Their 154-pound title fight was postponed three months and moved from Flint, Michigan, because Habazin’s trainer, James Ali Bashir, was brutally assaulted at the weigh-in for their October 5 fight in Flint. Artis Mack, Shields’ brother, was charged with assault after allegedly punching Bashir in his face and causing serious injuries to Habazin’s trainer October 4.
Habazin refused to fight Shields the next night because her trainer was hospitalized. Ali underwent emergency surgery to repair facial fractures and was unable to train Habazin for Friday’s fight.
The Croatian contender agreed to reschedule the fight only if it took place outside of Flint, where a capacity crowd was expected at Dort Federal Credit Union Event Center in Shields’ hometown.
One of the security measures Hazzard ordered once the fight was moved to New Jersey was to have at least five Atlantic City police officers at the weigh-in Thursday at Ocean Resort Casino, where they’ll fight Friday night. For additional protection, Salita, whose company promotes Shields, also has hired one Atlantic City police officer apiece to remain with the camps of Habazin and Shields throughout their time in Atlantic City.
“We all are aware of the situation that took place with James Ali Bashir out in Flint,” Hazzard told BoxingScene.com. “It didn’t look good for the sport of boxing. It was very ugly, and boxing took a big blow. We all are affected by it, even though it happened there. It’s not that we feel that we are inadequate to handle the situation, but look, you have to pull out all stops in a situation like this. We certainly don’t want that to happen in New Jersey.
“So, we feel it would be best to have police as security because sometimes when people just see the police they think twice. We’re not trying to make a big deal out of it, but it’s an extra precaution. That’s why I gave them a mandate that we need at least five Atlantic City police officers at the weigh-in. They were very cooperative. They’ve even gone above and beyond with some of their own security measures, which is good.”
Only one representative from each camp can accompany Shields and Habazin on stage for this weigh-in as well. Having multiple people unnecessarily on stage in Flint was one of the reasons the tense situation escalated.
Hazzard is certain that stage restriction, combined with the police presence and closing the weigh-in to the public, will make this event easier to control.
“I’m glad they did that,” Hazzard said of closing the weigh-in to the public. “I was going to recommend that, and they beat me to it. That was a good move by Dmitriy Salita for this particular weigh-in. I don’t feel that you necessarily need to do that for every weigh-in. But just as a precaution for this particular one, because you never know what’s still lingering out there from what happened before.
“Between the efforts that they’ve made and the efforts that we’ve made, I think everything will be just fine. They’ve done a tremendous job of making sure that this thing goes off without any retaliation. It’s not that we expected that to happen, but it’s always good to be proactive, rather than to have to react.”
Shields (9-0, 2 KOs) and Habazin (20-3, 7 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBC and WBO 154-pound titles in a 10-round main event Showtime will televise as part of a three-bout broadcast that’ll start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. In just her 10th professional fight, the 24-year-old Shields will attempt to become the fastest boxer, male or female, to win world titles in three weight classes.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.