Flint's Claressa Shields to bring boxing to LCA in June in bout against Hanna Gabriels

June 3 will be a day of fast cars as the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix takes to the streets. And now add to that fast punches, thanks to news that Claressa Shields, the Flint-born boxing phenom and entrepreneur, will headline an evening of professional boxing at Little Caesars Arena, a first for LCA, that night.

The boxing event will be broadcast by DAZN, the global sports streaming service affiliated with the NFL and others, Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions told me.

Shields, the self-described “G.W.O.A.T.” (Greatest Woman Boxer Of All Time) who won two Olympic gold medals and is undefeated as a professional, is getting her wish to fight in Detroit where she will face Hanna Gabriels as she defends her undisputed middleweight title.

Gabriels, from Costa Rica, is the only boxer to have ever knocked her down in an earlier fight in 2018, though Shields went on to win (7.1 million have watched video of the fight; you can see her fall 13 minutes in).

I predicted Shields, 28, would be one of five folks who would make an impact in 2023. The others? Roger Penske (speaking of Grand Prix), Mary Barra, Bill Ford and Mujeeb Ijaz. Shields told me her goal was to fight in Detroit.

Shields reinforced her position as one of the most dominating boxers in the world — male or female — in October 2022, when she defeated Savannah Marshall in a bruising battle in London in front of an audience of 20,000. Marshall, known as the “Silent Assassin,” is the only fighter to have beaten Shields when both were amateurs in 2012. Shields waited 10 years for that rematch.

Shields’ story has garnered attention. She grew up in a tough neighborhood in Flint and came from a challenging family situation. She began hanging out at a nearby gym for refuge, where she met a trainer who introduced her to boxing. She was good, very good, and began beating male boxers.

With her success, she’s giving back to her hometown through her foundation, which provides opportunities for kids from tough circumstances. Flint has celebrated her by naming a street after her.

Shields has dominated women’s boxing, holding such titles as junior middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight. She has been the undisputed junior middleweight champion and twice the undisputed middleweight champion — the title she currently has. She trains part-time at Tony Harrison’s Super Bad Gym in Detroit.

There’s little doubt the June event will rev up sales of her "G.W.O.A.T." merchandise. The enterprising entrepreneur trademarked the phrase, which is added to clothing and other products for sale.

More: Detroit entrepreneur may be only Black woman with EV charging station company in US

News that the fight with Shields was finally “on” at LCA (where 13,000 tickets will be sold starting April 18 at the Little Caesars Ticket Office website) made Salita do a happy dance.

He said the two fighters will be in Detroit on April 18 for a news conference to promote the LCA event, which took him years to nail down.

“I was on my way to Jerusalem with my children for Passover when it got finalized, and I said, ‘Thank you God’ as my prayers and work paid off,” he told me Monday. “During Seder, we have four glasses of wine so they were also celebratory for this professional breakthrough, too.

“Claressa is the perfect boxer to open up Little Caesars for professional boxing,” Salita said.

Salita is originally from Ukraine and moved to Brooklyn, New York, along with his parents. He loved boxing and fought professionally in 2001-13. He came to Detroit to train with Emanuel Stewart and his nephew, Sugarhill Stewart, at the storied Kronk Gym in 2009.

Salita will be inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame on April 30. He started Salita Promotions, where he’s making waves on the business side. He worked hard to achieve his success.

“I went through the challenges of being an immigrant on welfare and food stamps early on,” he said. “My parents took the journey because they believed that in the U.S., who you are will not stand in the way of what you can become. Which is why this award is so meaningful in a personal way.”

Besides Shields, Salita has a stable of more than 25 fighters including Otto Wallin, who fought Tyson Fury, WBC heavyweight champion last year, but came up short.

“I love boxing and am blessed to enjoy the journey through the peaks and valleys,” Salita said.

The idea of having big time boxing in the Motor City stems back to his Kronk days.

“It was a melting pot of some of the best talent in the world, but the city lacked consistency and quality back then,” Salita said. “Now we have the talent, infrastructure and pieces to bring big-time boxing to Detroit on a consistent basis and June 3 will be the spark that lights a fire for decades to come.”

He added, “Tommy Hearns won his first world title at Joe Louis Arena in 1980 that started the golden era of championship boxing in Detroit. Now in 2023, Claressa Shields, a generational talent, is opening up world class boxing at Little Caesars. This is a huge moment not only for boxing in Detroit but a statement for empowerment and equality.”

The June event will include other fights, too, with boxers Salita is lining up. He mentioned “talents like Joe Hicks from Lansing; Joshua Pagan, the U.S. national champion undefeated professional from Grand Rapids, and Kronk Gym’s Devalle Smith.”

More: As the Grand Prix returns to downtown, organizers hope Detroiters feel welcome

Salita’s taken notes about the timing of the June event and says the stars are all finally lining up.

“I think it’s great there will be many visitors (attending the Grand Prix) who can also enjoy world-class boxing featuring some of our best talent and the G.W.O.A.T. herself,” Salita said. “Fast cars and fast punches will go hand in hand that weekend!”

Contact Carol Cain: 248-355-7126 or clcain@cbs.com. She is senior producer/host of “Michigan Matters,” which airs 8 a.m. Sundays on CBS Detroit. See Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rocky Raczkowski, Target Insyght’s Ed Sarpolus and Coleman Young II on this Sunday’s show. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Flint boxer Claressa Shields to take on Hanna Gabriels at LCA