“If it’s going to be a dogfight, then so far there’s going to be two dogs and you’re not going to know who’s who,” Perkins said.Shields and Perkins are in the final preparations for an upcoming fight, slated for Feb. 2 in Flint, where Shields will defend a number of heavyweight titles and vie for a new one. Both Shields (15-0) and Perkins (5-0) are undefeated in their professional boxing careers. The fight at Dort Financial Center, being promoted by Detroit-based Salita Promotions, will air on pay per view on Showtime.

Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.

And for all of Shields’ well-earned confidence, she — and Perkins — know that come February, they’re both going to have to earn it.Speaking with reporters around an hour prior to Shields, Perkins talked a strong game about being the first “real” heavyweight Shields will face. Perkins, standing more than 6 feet tall and formerly a basketball player at St. John’s and then professionally overseas, easily will be the most physically imposing opponent Shields faces. Shields won a heavyweight title fight against Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in Detroit in June 2024, but Perkins dismissed that result, saying Shields hasn’t faced a true heavyweight with the reach and power like hers.

“It’s not only similar to being a great athlete like a Michael Jordan or a Muhammad Ali, but also has an element of a Jackie Robinson, breaking barriers with things that have never happened before,” Salita said of Shields, who won the first ever Olympic medal for a United States women’s boxer — gold in 2012 — among other firsts in her career. “The big breaks, I feel like it’s closer than ever right now,” Shields said.Shields fired right back.“It’s the most unique, for sure,” Shields said of the challenge of facing Perkins. “But you know the saying, ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall.’ So Joanisse made a pretty big noise when she fell and I plan on making Danielle Perkins make a bigger noise than that.”While not dismissive of her opponent overall, Shields’ general air was one of a champion: Brash, unrepentant, and doubting Perkins could truly go toe-to-toe with her.The February fight with Perkins also holds intense personal meaning for Shields. While she’s had a homecoming fight in her hometown of Flint before, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and attendance was limited to about 300 people.Now, with attendance unrestricted, Shields expects a packed house and plenty of support for what she feels will be a true homecoming. She expects the residents of Flint will do their part to get under Perkins’ skin, and for a few of her “haters” to be on hand.It’s also, she hopes, a launching point for her into the broader sports and pop culture zeitgeist. Shields is the subject of a recently released biopic, “The Fire Inside,” which debuted on Christmas 2024, and is hopeful her rise to this unlikely station as a woman and preeminent boxer can be parlayed into more sustained, broader-based stardom.

With less than a month until the duo face off for real, the verbal barbs were already plentiful, and Perkins didn’t back down. 

“She is fighting against the best,” Shields said, “and if she comes in there and she don’t put her chin down, and she feels like she can just come out there and bully me and put her size and her weight on me and just punch me hard and that’s going to win her the fight, she’s in for a rude awakening.”Detroit — As she sat and held court with media on Tuesday at Downtown Boxing Gym, black Nike Air Force 1s dangling from the apron of the ring and a “GWOAT” — Greatest Woman of All Time — pendant around her neck, world champion boxer Claressa Shields made her point clear: She’s prepared to make mincemeat of her next opponent, heavyweight Danielle Perkins. More:‘The Fire Inside’ review: A rousing boxing tale with fire in its fistsShields, a Flint native, has won a pair of Olympic gold medals, in 2012 and 2016, respectively, and is a multi-time world champion, holding undisputed titles in three weight classes. A win against Perkins would make Shields an undisputed champion in four, with heavyweight added to her trophy cabinet. “She’s not a heavyweight,” Perkins said of Lepage-Joanisse, “and there were a lot of concessions made for that fight to be made.”

Dmitriy Salita, head of Salita Promotions, thinks Shields is right to think along these terms, as he raved about the growth potential of women’s boxing in the greater boom of women’s sports. He considers Shields on a similar plane as other trailblazers in sports like Jackie Robinson.