Shannon Courtenay is determined to prove her credentials when she meets Rachel Ball in an eagerly-anticipated super-bantamweight scrap at Matchroom’s Fight Camp on Friday (August 14).
Midlander Ball (5-1, 0 KOs) has pedigree, having dropped a majority decision to WBC interim super-featherweight champion Katherina Thanderz in March 2019 and believes she can upset the heavily-hyped house fighter. Courtenay (5-0, 2 KOs) has other plans.
“This is going to be a fight where you can actually see what I’m about,” said Watford’s Courtenay. “Some people think that she might win, so I feel like I’m going to prove a lot of people wrong and I’m looking forward to making a statement. I perform well under pressure. When you put me in sparring with better girls, I perform better. You’ll see that on fight night.
“I’m going to shock a lot of people. Nothing worth having comes easy and I’ve worked so hard. I think every fight was a learning curve. Every fighter that I’ve come across was very different. I’ve learnt with every fight. It has been a bit of an apprenticeship for me. Now is the right time for me to step up, have a tough fight and show people what I’m all about.
“I’m working even harder to prove that I deserve to be here. Some people might say ‘she never went to the Olympics’ or question why I’ve been given such a big platform by Matchroom and Sky Sports, but on August 14 I’ll show why I’m on this platform by making a big statement.
“This was the first fight that was offered to me for Fight Camp and there was no hesitation in taking it from me. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know a great lot about Rachel. I know that from the day I had my debut, she was tweeting about me non-stop. I’ve been living in her head rent free for at least a year now, so that’s fine by me.
“I had a little watch of her afterwards. She’s tall, but there’s nothing that worries me about her. I’m confident going into this fight. I think I’ll be too strong. She’s around a foot taller than me. She might think someone this small might not be able to hurt her. Let me assure you, I carry power and she will feel it, 100%.
“I think people are intrigued because they’ve not seen enough of me yet. There’s this big following and social media presence. Do I deserve it because I haven’t boxed anyone of a big name yet or big status? There’s people that will question if I deserve this platform or deserve this hype. On August 14, I’ll prove that I do.”
Main image: Matchroom Boxing.