The official announcement we’ve all been waiting for arrived first thing this morning from Matchroom Boxing (late evening, Brisbane time) that on December 10 in Leeds, Ebanie Bridges will make the first defense of her IBF world bantamweight title against her mandatory challenger and Australian rival, Shannon O’Connell. Naturally, if O’Connell has any say in the matter, the Blonde Bomber’s first defense will also be her last and Christmas will come two weeks early for Team Shotgun.
The final reveal of the December 10 fight date comes after roughly two and a half months of social media swipes, bitter accusations, and fruitless negotiations, all of which necessitated intervening on the part of the IBF which issued a pair of mandates forcing a reluctant Bridges to accept the challenge from the number one ranked O’Connell rather than opt out so that she could voluntarily select her own opponent.
Bridges seems perturbed and inconvenienced by the whole situation, insisting that she had to bypass a huge opportunity to stoop down to O’Connell’s level and get her out of the way first. The champion regards Shannon as little more than an ant at a picnic-type nuisance or common charity case, mocking O’Connell as a has-been or never-was who Ebanie claims is clamoring for the spotlight and begging for a big payday, neither of which she says Shannon would have gotten without the benefit of hitching her wagon to Bridges’ gravy train.
She has gone so far as to refer to Shannon as “a horrible human” who slags her off in the most vicious ways possible simply to get attention. A rather curious comment to make, coming from the woman who, completely unprovoked, called O’Connell a “c**t” in a recent Twitter post.
This increasingly nasty feud will finally come to a head at the First Direct Arena, the site of Bridges’ title-winning victory over longtime champion Maria Cecilia Roman back in March. The Bridges vs. O’Connell grudge match will be the chief support bout to Josh Warrington’s mandatory IBF featherweight title defense against Luis Alberto Lopez in the main event.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Bridges permanently relocated to the Matchroom Boxing stronghold of Essex, England after inking a long-term promotional contract with Eddie Hearn early last year. A football fan who is an outspoken advocate for Leeds United, Bridges has subsequently amassed a rabid fanbase in the West Yorkshire city where the bout will take place, thanks to Matchroom having won the purse bid earlier this month for the right to host the event.
O’Connell, a native of Brisbane, hoped for the all-Aussie squabble to be settled in the land Down Under, but ultimately isn’t bothered by whatever destination on the globe she has to travel to in order to finally get her hands on her nemesis, not to mention that world championship belt.
More or less implying that O’Connell thinks small and that the outcome of the fight in her own favor is a foregone conclusion, Bridges stated that Shannon should be grateful things went the Blonde Bomber’s way with the purse bid. Ebanie contends that, due to the time difference, only the most hardcore boxing fans would have been awake for the fight had it occurred in Australia, as opposed to the massive platform Bridges boasts about putting O’Connell on courtesy of her association with Matchroom and their partnership with the popular streaming service DAZN.
One could see their way to begrudgingly conceding that point to Bridges, except for the fact that she states it in such patronizing fashion, as if she is magnanimously doing poor, put upon Shannon a favor. After all, let’s not forget who spent $10,000 in appeal money trying to squirm her way out of this fight last month.
The battle lines have been drawn, but regardless of who your allegiance lies with, you can’t fail to recognize that this is going to be one hell of a scrap. Not everyone is going to agree with me, and that’s fine, but I personally see Bridges/O’Connell as a very worthy successor to Taylor/Serrano, Shields/Marshall, and Mayer/Baumgardner as a watershed moment in the contemporary history of women’s boxing which will help continue to carry it from beyond the shadowy, indistinct margins of the sport up into boldfaced worldwide headlines where it belongs.
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