Australia is an absolute hotbed of women’s boxing, and
has been for quite some time. Look no further for proof of this than the significant
achievements of Diana Prazak, Susie Q Ramadan, fighter and writer Mischa
Merz, Cherneka Johnson, Kori Farr, Avril Mathie, Beck Hawker, Bianca Elmir, Taylah
Robertson, Louisa Hawton, Caitlin Parker, and Skye Nicolson to name just a
handful.
Differentiating oneself as more than just a face in the
crowd amongst these noteworthy female fighters is quite a formidable task. And
yet Queensland’s ‘Shotgun’ Shannon O’Connell (23-6-1, 11 KOs) has spent the
last eighteen years doing exactly that.
Kicking off her amateur career in 2004 at the age of twenty-one,
O’Connell claimed the top prize at the AIBA Oceania tournament that same year. She
would go on to ascend to the upper tier of the medal stand at the 2005 Arafura
Games and Oceanian Championships (which Shannon would win again in 2010), as
well as fight her way to becoming the Australian National Champion in 2009 before
turning pro two years later.
Having scrapped her way to a world title shot in only her
ninth professional fight, O’Connell was just barely edged out on the scorecards
by defending (and still to this day, even if her reign has been “massively
cherrypicked” as Shannon asserts) WBA featherweight champion Hyun Mi Choi in
May 2013. Six weeks later, Shannon would win the WBF portion of the 126-pound
crown with a seventh-round knockout of Gabisile Tshabalala, who had to be
conveyed from the ring on a stretcher and spent two years on the inactive list.
A reversal of fortune befell Shannon in her next bout
when she was floored twice and ultimately stopped by WBC world featherweight
titleholder Diana Prazak. In subsequent years, O’Connell would win the WIBA
world title at super-bantamweight and pick up a secondary WBC belt in the same
division which she would successfully defend on two occasions.
2017 was a rough year for Shannon. Though she battled her
way into contention for Marcela Eliana Acuna’s IBF super-bantamweight world
title, O’Connell lost a purse bid to bring that fight to Suncorp Stadium in
Brisbane on the Manny Pacquiao/Jeff Horn undercard. Forced to travel to
Argentina rather than appear on a high-profile show in front of 55,000 Aussie
fight fans, Shannon gave a far better account of herself than the hometown judges’
scores would indicate, but was outpointed by the vastly more experienced Acuna.
Worse still, O’Connell faced off against world title
challenger Helen Joseph in a bounce-back fight a mere month and a half later
and was stopped in the second round, knocked out cold by the Nigerian ‘Iron
Lady’ courtesy of a hellacious left hook delivered during a heated exchange.
She would turn things around before the year’s end, however, powering her way
to a first-round TKO of Sumalee Tongpootorn.
O’Connell currently remains unbeaten in her last eight
bouts, notching yet another first-round stoppage victory on June 29, this time
opposite rising prospect Sarah Higginson. And after recuperating from two
surgical procedures on her left shoulder, no less.
“The big part of my recent eight-fight winning streak
came after I fell pregnant and had my baby boy. I guess having that bit of time
out gave me time to sit back and analyze everything,” Shannon theorized in our recent
conversation. “I also trained hard and not necessarily smart. I still do that,
but not with boxing. I run hard and my strength and conditioning is hard, but
my boxing is more about practicing little things and learning. My baby is now
three and I haven’t had a loss, so I guess he’s my little lucky charm.”
Her successes have not gone unnoticed by two of boxing’s
major sanctioning bodies. “I first became ranked #1 in the WBA by beating
Cherneka Johnson, who was 13-0, on her coach’s promotion in early 2021,” O’Connell
confirmed for me. “I then won the Commonwealth title in probably one of the
harder Aussie vs. Aussie fights I’ve had against Kori Farr. Someone who I knew
from thousands of rounds of sparring that was better than her record and just
never on the ‘A’ side when it came to promoters. That got me ranked in the IBF.”
Now rated as the top bantamweight contender by both the
WBA and IBF, ‘Shotgun’ Shannon is locked and loaded for what would undoubtedly
be an all-action showdown with another female fighter from Down Under whom I
have deliberately yet to mention. Namely everyone’s favorite cheeky Aussie (pun
very much intended), Ebanie Bridges. Well, not everyone. O’Connell is neither amused
nor impressed by Bridges’ antics, referring to her as “trash.” The disdain, for
what it’s worth, appears to be mutual. Which Shannon is fine with.
“She talks like she doesn’t know my name, etc. But of
course she does. If she didn’t know my name, she wouldn’t feel the need to put
me down every chance it gets mentioned,” said Shannon. “I think she forgets
that she was a fan years ago.”
Despite the fact that O’Connell was installed as the WBA’s
number one contender at the time, she was completely overlooked for a crack at
their vacant bantamweight title last April. Instead, Ebanie Bridges and Shannon
Courtenay, with only twelve fights’ worth of professional boxing experience
between them, were given the nod. I couldn’t help but ask Shannon, who
described the slugfest as looking like ”two novice girls just having a brawl,”
how that was allowed to happen.
“Well, the WBA fight that I had (the title eliminator against
Cherneka Johnson) was organized by my opponent’s trainer/promoter and, well,
he’s not Eddie Hearn,” she chuckled. “So he managed to get both us bypassed so
that Shannon Courtnay and Ebanie, who were both ranked lower than both of us, got
the fight over us.” Meanwhile, things were reaching a boiling point between O’Connell
and her own team, members of which it seems didn’t have her best interests at
heart.
“I had a few management issues in my next fight prep and
came to realize there were some things going on behind my back. Contracts not
being mentioned to me for fights, including that IBF world title that Bridges
ended up getting, and promotional deals. So I split with my manager and had no
choice but to move on to a new coach,” she pointed out to me. “It turned out to
be the best thing possible in both ways, coaching and management. Right from
the get-go, Glen Jennings (Team Tszyu 2) and No Limit Boxing were on the hunt
to get things moving and were trying to get the mandatory position locked in
for before she (Bridges) even won the title. So it’s been months of behind the
scenes pushing all while I was recovering from major shoulder surgery.”
Just last month, Eddie Hearn officially announced his
plan to take Matchroom Boxing’s show on the road to Australia for the very first
time in September. Headlined by a twelve-round super-lightweight bout between
unbeaten contenders Liam Paro and Brock Jarvis, the card will also feature
undefeated heavyweight Demsey McKean as well as former Olympian Skye Nicolson,
who will be fighting in front of a home crowd for the first time as a pro.
Surely an all-Aussie bantamweight title clash between
newly-crowned IBF champion Ebanie Bridges and her mandatory challenger Shannon
O’Connell would be a no-brainer for inclusion as a chief support bout. Not so
fast, submits O’Connell.
“Matt Rose (No Limit Boxing) has had contact with Eddie
Hearn and he has no intention of putting her in with me, which is sad really
because I’m sure he knows I at least deserve a shot at proving the belt should
be mine,” Shannon asserted. “Eddie is a business man though at the end of the
day, and I think he knows I’m the biggest draw to put her in against before she
loses it anyway trying to unify because every one of those girls (Yulihan Luna,
Jamie Mitchell, Dina Thorslund) beat her.”
Assuming the fight doesn’t take place in September, how
confident is O’Connell that Bridges and Hearn will honor their obligation to
her when or if the time eventually comes?
“We were told only a week ago that I am her mandatory, but
she’s not due a mandatory defense until March 2023,” Shannon informed me. “We
still pushed for the fight because, well you know, wouldn’t a champion want to
challenge themselves? Apparently not all of them. I highly doubt the fight will
happen because she knows I beat her.”
The scraphappy yet technically proficient O’Connell is
confident that Bridges’ often reckless aggression is a style tailor-made for her
to capitalize on. “To be honest, I really think it’ll be a good entertaining
fight. She comes forward and that suits me perfect,” avowed Shannon. “She’s
tough and so am I, but I have a lot more skill and knowledge. I think my
experience and ability to adapt will definitely show.”
Nothing has ever come easy for Shannon O’Connell in or
out of the ring. But something tells me, when it comes right down to it, she wouldn’t
have it any other way. After all, the things in life most worth having should never
be come by effortlessly. Having opportunities dropped into your lap or being
gifted decisions does nothing but give the recipient delusions of grandeur and
a sense of entitlement.
“Go figure,” Shannon laughs, having been around the block
a time or two dozen by now and made to concede to her fair share of the fight
game’s partisan repudiation. “It’s not what you’ve achieved, it’s who’s paying
the bills.”
It MUST happen!!!
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