Dmitriy Salita, Shields’ career-long promoter, informed The Ring that ongoing negotiations should lead to a deal for Shields to face fellow Olympic gold medalist Lauren Price in a middleweight match on a date to be determined in the first quarter of 2027, somewhere in the United States. Shields and Price expect to fight other opponents before they meet, perhaps on the same card.

Shields exhausted most of her options at heavyweight (175 pounds for women) and super middleweight and turned her attention to Price once a much-discussed showdown with former U.S. Olympic teammate Mikaela Mayer didn’t materialize.

“Our intent is to make a Claressa-Lauren fight,” Salita told The Ring. “Claressa flew out to Wales for Lauren Price’s last fight and obviously demonstrated her interest in making it. We’ve since had meaningful discussions [with Ben Shalom, Price’s promoter] and they’ve exchanged some words, as fighters do.

“They’re two Olympic gold medalists. It’s one of the biggest fights in boxing and the biggest fight in women’s boxing, and it would be another legacy-making statement for Claressa Shields. There are details that still need to be ironed out, but we’re optimistic that at some point it will get done.”

Shields (18-0, 3 KOs), a five-division champion from Flint, Michigan, hasn’t competed at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds in three years. The former undisputed middleweight champ has weighed at least 173½ pounds for each of her four fights since she defended her Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts against Maricela Cornejo, a late replacement Shields defeated by unanimous decision in June 2023.

Price (10-0, 2 KOs) – a southpaw from Ystrad, Mynach, Wales – has competed at welterweight since she made her pro debut in June 2022. The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC 147-pound champ won a gold medal in the 165-pound division, however, at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and is thus accustomed to succeeding at a higher weight.

Shields, 31, is ranked No. 2 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list. Price, also 31, is No. 8, five spots below the third-ranked Mayer.

Las Vegas’ Mayer (22-2, 5 KOs) is scheduled to face fifth-ranked Brit Chantelle Cameron (22-1, 8 KOs) in a 10-round fight for Mayer’s WBA and WBC and Cameron’s WBO 154-pound titles August 29 at bp pulse LIVE in Birmingham, England.