Shannon Courtenay (born 3 July 1993) is a British

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who held the WBA female

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

title between April and October 2021.

Professional career

Courtenay made her professional debut on 23 March 2019, scoring a four-round

points decision A points decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. Unlike normal decisions where there are three judges that agree on whic ...

(PTS) victory over Cristina Busuioc at the

Copper Box Arena The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England. Previously known as the Handball Arena, it was renamed because, aside from handball, it hosted mo ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The fight was televised live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

as part of the undercard for Charlie Edwards' world title defense against Angel Moreno. One month later she defeated Roz Mari Silyanova via four-round points decision on 23 April. The fight was streamed live on Sky Sports'

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page as part of the preliminary undercard for Dave Allen vs.

Lucas Browne Lucas Browne (born 14 April 1979) is an Australian professional boxer and former mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He held the WBA (Regular) heavyweight title in 2016 when he stopped Ruslan Chagaev. At regional level, he has held multiple hea ...

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

, London. In June, she stopped Valerija Sepetovska by

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) at 1 minute 16 seconds in the second-round of a scheduled six-round bout held at the York Hall. Her next fight was a four-round points win over Jasmina Nad on 26 October as part of the undercard for the

Josh Taylor Josh or Joshua Taylor may refer to: * Josh Taylor (actor) (born 1943), American comedy and dramatic television actor * Josh Taylor (baseball) (born 1993), American professional baseball pitcher * Josh Taylor (boxer) (born 1991), Scottish profession ...

vs.

Regis Prograis Regis Prograis ( ; born January 24, 1989) is an American professional boxer. He has held the WBC super lightweight title since November 2022, and previously the WBA super lightweight title in 2019. As of February 2021, he is ranked as the world ...

world title fight, held at The O2 Arena. Courtenay's final fight of 2019 came on 19 December, scoring a fifth-round TKO over Buchra El Quaissi at the York Hall. Her first fight of 2020 came against

Rachel Ball Rachel Ball (born 12 March 1991) is an English professional boxer and former kickboxer who has held the WBC female interim super-bantamweight title since 2020. Professional career Ball made her professional debut on 17 December 2017, scoring ...

on 14 August at the

Matchroom Sport Matchroom Sport is a sporting event promotions company founded by English entrepreneur Barry Hearn and run by Hearn and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool (cue sports), ...

headquarters in

Brentwood, Essex Brentwood is a town in the Borough of Brentwood, in the county of Essex in the East of England. It is in the London commuter belt, situated 20 miles (30 km) east-north-east of Charing Cross and close by the M25 motorway. In 2017, the popula ...

. In a fight which saw Courtenay dropped to the canvas by a left hook in the first round, she went on to suffer her first professional defeat, losing on points over eight rounds, with the referee scoring the bout 77–75. She bounced back from defeat with a TKO victory against Dorota Norek in December, before facing

Ebanie Bridges Ebanie Bridges (born 22 September 1986) is an Australian professional boxer. She has held the IBF female bantamweight title since 2022. As an amateur, Bridges competed in the women's bantamweight event at the 2016 and 2017 Australasian Golden ...

for the vacant WBA female bantamweight title. The bout took place on 10 April 2021 at the Copper Box Arena. In a fight which saw Courtenay hurt her opponent with a right hand in the fifth round while also causing Bridges' eye to close through swelling by the ninth, Courtenay emerged victorious via ten-round

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(UD). Two judges scored the bout 98–92 and the third judge scored it 97–94. In July it was announced that Courtenay will make the first defence of her title against Jamie Mitchell on 14 August at the Matchroom Sport Headquarters. The fight was postponed after Courtenay suffered an injury in training and was forced to withdraw. The fight was rescheduled for October 9, 2021 on Smith vs Fowler card in Liverpool, England. On 8 October 2021, Courtenay failed to make weight for her fight with Jamie Mitchell and was stripped of her WBA Bantamweight World Title.Shannon Courtenay set to be stripped of WBA title after missing weight for Mitchell fight - BBC Sport
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Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Courtenay, Shannon Living people 1993 births English women boxers Sportspeople from Hertfordshire Super-bantamweight boxers World bantamweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions