Shea open to Haymon picking up women

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Maureen SheaMaureen Shea (24-2, 12 KO’s) expects to be a world champion at the end of the evening as she takes on IBF World female super-bantamweight champion Yulihan Alejandra Luna Avila (12-2, 1 KO) on the undercard of Mosley-Mayorga on Sat. Aug. 29 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Shea believes her experience is going to be a key factor in this fight. Although she didn’t state the specific flaws she uncovered watching tape of her opponent, she expects to capitalize on it in front of her diehard fans.

“I have a lot of experience and what she has is nothing that I haven’t seen before,” Shea said. “I’ll adapt come fight night. I’ll go into the first round, see what I’m dealing with, and then we’ll go from there.”

The scheduled card is the first independent pay-per-view promoted by a big-name boxer in history – that being former world champion Shane Mosley – and it’s going to be the first pay-per-view that features a women’s title fight in over a decade.

If the card is successful, does Shea expect another transformation that welcomes women’s boxing back into the foray? She hopes so.

“I hope so because I think it’s dumb!” Shea adamantly said. “These promoters should invest. It’s a market that they’re not seeing the value in and it’s really sad.”

Sometimes Shea adds that she believes that there is a movement to keep women’s boxing out of the picture. I see her point.

The United States is sometimes slow on adapting to change because of its traditional standing. Traditional America includes views that women should stay in the kitchen, have children, and be a good mother while the man does the real work.

Our country is beginning to evolve, beginning to change, but we’re still at this road block because a lot of these promoters are, for the most part, are stuck in this traditional mindset. They are closed-minded and easily swayed by outsiders.

At the end of the day, the sport is still a business, and money talks. Women’s boxing doesn’t have a lot of money right now, but it can if we work at it.

Look at how the UFC and MMA have propped up their women fighters. Ronda Rousey – of course – leads the pack. We can do the same. We just need more people that are filthy rich with a ton of charisma to get the job done.

So I asked Ms. Shea, considering that some fans aren’t going to be willing to pay $49.99 for the pay-per-view, what about free television?

If Al Haymon could pick up women’s boxing, we could be talking about an even bigger transformation than ever before. Who doesn’t like promoting the sport?

When asked to give her thoughts about PBC potentially picking up the ladies, Shea seemed ecstatic and open to the idea.

“I would love that. If a promoter would step up and give us an opportunity – that would be huge. It’s the time. The time is now,” Shea adding sounding like an experienced saleswoman.

If Mosley doesn’t pull through with this card, I expect PBC to take charge.