Lani Daniels will step into Madison Square Garden on Friday night with a chance to leave with a third world title, and Shadasia Green is the fighter standing between her and that goal. Their WBO/IBF super middleweight bout is scheduled for 8 p.m. MDT and will air on.
Daniels, 37, told the Deseret News during a recent Utah visit that she plans to walk out of the Garden with another belt. She has already held world championship belts in two divisions, and she said the path to this point has been shaped as much by discipline as by ambition.
Boxing, Daniels said, began as part of a weight management journey. She said she first laced up gloves several years ago for a reason that had nothing to do with championship belts, adding that boxing has been a tool she has used to manage her weight. Now she is one fight away from adding another major title to a career that already spans multiple divisions.
Her story reaches far beyond the ring. Daniels is a Latter-day Saint Relief Society sister from a small Maori village, and she said her family has belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand for several generations. In her view, the church and Maori culture fit together because family sits at the center of both. “The church and the Maori culture align so well because family is the core of it all. … We all go to church because we are all family,” she said.
That combination of faith, culture and boxing has made Daniels a distinctive figure in a sport that often prizes only power. Caroline Kreutzkamp described her as “The Smiling Assassin” and said Daniels has a beautiful smile, but what lingers is her beautiful soul. The contrast fits a fighter who has spoken about wanting to move like Sugar Ray while punching with the force of Marvin Hagler.
Madison Square Garden has hosted generations of boxing greats, and Friday’s bout gives Daniels a chance to add her name to a venue already heavy with history. For Green, the night is an immediate test against a veteran champion. For Daniels, it is the next step in a career that started with practical goals and has moved, fight by fight, into something much larger.