‘Devastated’ Shannon Courtenay focuses on her big bout

~The 28-year-old is likely to be stripped of her WBA bantamweight title.

Nick Purewal
Friday 08 October 2021 20:09 BST
Shannon Courtenay, pictured, has failed to make weight for her fight against Jamie Mitchell and is likely to lose her WBA title (Mike Egerton/PA)
Shannon Courtenay, pictured, has failed to make weight for her fight against Jamie Mitchell and is likely to lose her WBA title (Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Shannon Courtenay is likely to be stripped of her WBA bantamweight title after failing to make weight for her defence against Jamie Mitchell.

The 28-year-old was 2.5lbs over the 118lbs limit on Friday afternoon, but the Liverpool bout will still go ahead on Saturday.

Courtenay explained a predicament on social media that proved entirely out of her control, leaving the Briton in the agonising situation of potentially losing the WBA belt.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUxZgKIICWr/

“We was on weight and ready to go yesterday,” said Courtenay on Instagram.

“Then last night unexpectedly my menstrual cycle started, which makes women gain weight.

“We had no weight issues during camp and all week I’ve been in a really good place and ready.

“To say I’m devastated is an understatement because this has never happened before, I’m always professional, but this was physically out of my control.

“It’s happened and I can’t change it but what I can do is go out there, get the win and get my belt back straight after that, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in