Shields vs Habazin: Main event is off after attack on Habazin’s trainer, Showtime broadcast will go on

Tomorrow night’s scheduled Showtime main event between Claressa Shields and Ivana Habazin isn’t going to happen, according to a tweet from Jimmy Lennon Jr, but the show will go on with the planned undercard fights still happening:

The fight has been scrapped following an incident at the weigh-in earlier this afternoon, with Habazin’s trainer Bashir Ali reportedly attacked from behind, being knocked out and sent to the hospital. The last update was he was headed to Detroit for facial surgery, and Habazin has decided — quite understandably — to pull out of the fight.

The fight was supposed to be for a pair of vacant 154-pound titles, with Shields looking to claim a world title in a third weight class, having already done so at 168 and 160, in that order.

Shields gave her side of the situation before the cancellation, obviously hoping for the fight to go on:

“Her name is Ivana ‘No Excuses,’ so hopefully we don’t have none,” Shields said. “I’m quite sure she has another coach who she can fly in. Ain’t nothing happen to her. Something happened to her coach, sadly.”

The idea of Habazin flying someone in from Croatia on a day’s notice for perhaps the biggest fight of her career is obviously ridiculous, but Shields, of course, wasn’t trying to lose a hometown payday, which she now has.

It also has to be noted that Shields says the person who attacked Ali was not associated with her team, but she also gave her side of the arguments with Ali and members of her team.

“Her coach was being real disrespectful, but that still don’t make it alright, whatever happened,” Shields said. “I didn’t tell nobody who was with me to do anything. It wasn’t nobody from my team.”

The show will go on with two fights, one featuring welterweight prospect Jaron Ennis against Demian Daniel Fernandez, and the other with heavyweight Jermaine Franklin taking on Pavel Sour.