Lani Daniels Stops Shadasia Green to Win World Titles

Lani Daniels produced the sort of upset that leaves the script in tatters and the house momentarily unsure whether to cheer, gasp or simply stare. Daniels, the former light-heavyweight and heavyweight titlist from New Zealand, stopped Shadasia Green 32 seconds into the ninth round to take Green’s IBF and WBO super-middleweight titles. It was Daniels’ first victory outside New Zealand, it made her a champion in a third division, and it came only after a fight that went from competitive to punishing and, at the finish, genuinely distressing.

The official result was a technical knockout, but that tidy phrase did little to capture the scene. Green, who had entered as the unbeaten unified champion at 16-1 and fresh from her split-decision win over Savannah Marshall in July 2025, was exhausted and vulnerable by the close of the eighth. When the ninth began, she came out looking spent. Daniels sprang across the ring with the air of a woman who knew the titles were there to be claimed, and referee Eric Dali intervened after a burst of unanswered punches with Green trapped on the ropes. Green was treated in the ring, removed on a stretcher and taken for medical attention, though later reports said she was conscious, speaking and doing well in the locker room.

Before the ending darkened the mood, this had been an absorbing title fight, high-paced and tactically revealing. Green began like a champion keen to remind everybody why there had already been talk of a future meeting with Claressa Shields. She had the physical advantages, the heavier-looking single shots and, early on, the cleaner authority. Her jab established range in the opening round, and in the second, she drove Daniels to the ropes often enough to suggest she might impose herself with strength and straighter punching.

Daniels, though, never looked particularly interested in playing the role of respectful challenger. She kept edging forward, kept trying to shorten the distance, and kept punctuating exchanges with enough force to stop Green from settling into a comfortable rhythm. Green was probably still the sharper boxer through the first three rounds. She found room for the right hand, mixed in uppercuts when Daniels crowded her, and, when she was able to work in space, looked the more polished operator. But there was already a warning in the pattern. Daniels was making Green work on every clean attack, and she did so with persistence rather than elegance.

That middle portion of the fight was where Daniels won it. She did not do so with a single dramatic punch or one round of wild fortune. She did it by turning the bout into the sort of physical, close-quarters argument Green no longer controlled. Daniels kept working behind the jab, leaning in, touching the body and forcing Green to exchange in cramped spaces. Green still had moments, especially when she could suddenly stiffen Daniels with a right hand or throw combinations in the centre of the ring, but they were moments rather than sustained command.

By the sixth and seventh, the signs were there for anyone willing to look at something other than reputations. Daniels was landing downstairs, threading uppercuts in close and forcing Green to fight at a pace she no longer seemed able to dictate. Green did rally in patches and had enough success to remind Daniels of her power, but even there the challenger came back with her own combinations and refused to be discouraged. It was telling that Green’s best punching increasingly came in bursts, whereas Daniels’ pressure had become constant. The champion was not being blown away; she was being worn down, which can be even crueller.

By the end of the eighth, Green’s jab had largely disappeared, and Daniels was walking her down. The finish itself came quickly. Daniels opened the ninth by going back to the body and then upstairs as Green crumbled in the corner. Dali did what he was there to do and stopped it at 32 seconds, sparing Green a few more moments of unnecessary punishment. There was nothing controversial about the intervention. Daniels had sensed the fatigue and attacked with the certainty of a boxer who understood that champions do not always have to be outclassed to be beaten; sometimes they merely have to be emptied.

So Daniels leaves New York with a record of 12-4-2 and two more world titles to add to a career that has now stretched from light heavyweight to heavyweight to super middleweight. She had come in off defeats to Claressa Shields and Sarah Scheurich and was given only limited chances by most observers. Yet there she was at the end, not looking like a thief in the night but like a woman who had taken exactly what she had earned.

For Green, now 16-2, this was a bitter and abrupt reversal. She had spoken beforehand about not looking beyond Daniels, even with Shields’ name hanging in the air, and in the event that caution was justified. The fight exposed something important: Green is an effective boxer when she can set the terms, punch in space and keep the exchanges orderly; she is more vulnerable when made to work hard, often, and without relief. Daniels denied her control, denied her comfort and eventually denied her the titles. That was the boxing story. The human one, thankfully, seemed less grim by the end of the night once word came through that Green was alert and responsive.