Spirits are high in the Franchon Crews-Dezurn camp. The 38-year-old is putting in the miles the hard way, via an eight-hour drive from Baltimore to Detroit, where the stakes aren’t much higher than they were Sunday night. Waiting at the other end: a showdown with local giant Claressa Shields, with the undisputed women’s boxing heavyweight crown on the line.
Inside the car, surrounded by familiar faces who have marched with her through every camp and every war, Crews-Dezurn steals a rare moment of tranquility. The road stretches endlessly ahead, more than 500 kilometers of asphalt and reflections. She sees him passing through the window.
“It’s a good way to get their minds together,” the unified WBA and WBC super middleweight champion admits to Uncrowned, five days into a rematch that has been a decade in the making. “It’s a good trip with the team, you know? We can have a lot of fun along the way.”
His smile is bright, complementing his typically lively hair and trademark oversized sunglasses, but there’s irritation in his tone of voice. Her promoter, Dmitry Salita, who is also promoting her opponent on Sunday, recently claimed that Crews-Dezurn has a “sore shoulder” about being compared to Shields. She also stated that she simply “wants to be respected,” something the Baltimore fighter agrees with.
“We’re just in different lanes,” Cruz-Dezurn explains of her and Shields. “I don’t have any hard feelings at all. She’s her and I’m me. I guess I’m more disappointed with the promotion of the fight as a whole. Honey, I’m not an alternate, I’m not just another Claressa opponent. I’m a former undisputed super middleweight champion and the current unified one, so I’m not sure things should be like that. as partial to her.”
Cruz-Dezurn believes Shields makes Salita dance to her own tune; He literally joined the “GWOAT.” But it’s a two-way relationship. Shields decided to stay with the same promoter she started with, signing a historic $8 million multi-fight minimum guaranteed partnership with Salita Promotions and Wynn Records in late 2025.
“I’m one of Salita’s main fighters,” Cruz-Dezurn continues. “One of the only champions on the roster, so it’s a little strange how they’ve kept me away from some of the promotional stuff. I’m like, ‘What am I here for?’ They’ll gladly post fight cards and not even tag me on them. Why wouldn’t you want to use the name of an established champion? I’m not a journeyman, not a springboard, not any set-up. This is all being done just to get inside my head.
“But the game is the game. And we’re all just pieces of the game. She’s playing her role 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 did my best to act as a mentor to her. I also helped make her more marketable – long gone are the days when I could be considered jealous of Claressa.
“I even helped style her for some of her fights,” adds Cruz-Dezurn. The Baltimore fighter spent $25 to buy a sewing machine on Craigslist when she was in her 20s, which ignited her passion for fashion. “About five of her outfits have been designed by me. She compared our relationship in the past to Serena and Venus Williams, which is cool, and hey, I guess you can fight your big sister!”
Half a year before the Olympic flame was lit at London 2012, the then-teenage Shields began to make her way into the broader boxing conversation.
At just 16 years old, when most prospects were still practicing in the shadows and learning the small disciplines of the trade, Shields entered the furnace of the United States Olympic trials. In front of her was the established standard-bearer, national champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn, older, physically mature, and expected to brush aside the challenger solely because of his youth.
Instead, the fight flipped the script. Shields fought with a maturity that belied her age, dictating the pace, choosing her moments and dismantling assumptions round after round. It wasn’t just a surprise, it was an announcement. That night not only gave him a result, but it also gave him direction.
Momentum gathered quickly. By the time the Games came around, she no longer looked like a hopeful contender but a fully formed contender. In London, Shields won Olympic gold and the rivalry with Crews-Dezurn deepened. They faced each other twice more as amateurs, with each contest adding another layer of familiarity and competitive advantage; both ended with Shields’ hand raised.
When both women moved to the professional code in 2016, the pairing wasted no time in reconnecting their paths. Their debut nights in Las Vegas pitted them against each other once again, and the pattern still held. Shields controlled the terms, managed the distance and preserved her undefeated streak over a rival who had become the measuring stick of her entire career.
Years after that first collision, both fighters now arrive with decorated resumes and greater meaning attached to each blow. Titles, pride and unfinished business hang over the rematch, as a champion seeks to reinforce her dominance and a challenger seeks to finally change the end of a rivalry that has followed them.
But what has changed in the decade that has passed?
“This time you’ll get a complete fighter,” says Crews-Dezurn. “Obviously we both have a lot more experience now, and now I’ve had a whole camp to prepare instead of being given two weeks’ notice from the couch.
“It just took a long time to get back together in the ring, it should have been sooner. They didn’t want to risk their career 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’ve been champion for years, but no.
“Of course we are not as close as before; that is natural," Adds Crews-Dezurn. "She is a close acquaintance of mine and we are cool, but we are also professionals. It’s okay to have changed and I accept it. Now she has to deal with a lot of fame and that will surely have an impact on her. “She moved to a different space and I have given her that space and grace to do so.”
Cruz-Dezurn speaks with maturity. A woman completely comfortable with herself. This confidence can help in knowing and understanding a fighter’s limits in the ring, and his approach to Sunday’s fight is not surprising.
“I have everything I need to win this fight," she says. "I haven’t gained weight from food; I’ve tried to gain some muscle to improve my power, but here’s the thing: I’m contracted to be under 175 pounds, so I can’t go crazy. Which is still baffling to me since I didn’t know heavyweight had a weight limit, but I guess I should be grateful for the opportunity. Think about fighters of the past like Sonya Lamonakis, who fought at over 240 pounds!
Fighting in Shields’ backyard means the pressure and expectations are firmly on the Detroit fighter’s shoulders, and Cruz-Dezurn is happy to be in that position. Just don’t call it the “B side” of Sunday’s fight.
“I’m not a B-side, honey, I never have been and I never will be,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t know how betting works, but apparently my odds of winning this fight are crazy. They’re completely ignoring me; they’re even starting to talk about Shields’ next fights, whether it’s (Mikaela) Mayer or (Shadasia) Green. It seems crazy to me, but I’m fine.
“I can’t beat the media, I can’t beat the machine, but I can beat it.”