Jessica McCaskill (born September 8, 1984) is an American

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. She is a world champion in two

weight classes Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...

, having held the undisputed, IBO, and ''Ring'' female

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

titles since 2020; the WBC female

super lightweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...

title from 2018 to 2020; and the WBA female super lightweight title from 2019 to 2020. She also challenged for the WBA

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight b ...

title in 2017. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's best active female welterweight by '' The Ring'' and

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profe ...

, and the third best active female,

pound for pound Pound for pound is a ranking used in combat sports, such as boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts, of who the better fighters are irrespective of their weight, i.e. adjusted to compensate for weight class. As these fighters do not compete d ...

, by BoxRec, and fourth by ''The Ring'' and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Early life

Native to

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The ...

(part of

Greater St. Louis Greater St. Louis is a bi-state metropolitan area that completely surrounds and includes the independent city of St. Louis, the principal city. It includes parts of both Missouri and Illinois. The city core is on the Mississippi Riverfront ...

), McCaskill and was raised by her great aunt and her four sons. As a child her family fell on hard times and lived in the back of a local church. In 2008 McCaskill started her amateur boxing career. In 2012 McCaskill moved to Chicago and started working as an investment banker.

Amateur career

McCaskill started boxing in 2008, just for fitness, and had her first amateur bout in April 2009. After climbing the ranks, she won the 2010

Golden Gloves The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nationa ...

award. With a 17–1 amateur record, McCaskill won the Golden Glove Championship belts in 2014 and 2015.

Professional career

McCaskill made her professional debut on August 22, 2015 with a

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) victory against Tyrea Nichole Duncan at the

Horseshoe Casino Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is named for its founder, Be ...

Hammond, Indiana Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, Lake County, Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. First settled in the mid-19th century, it is one of the oldest cities of northern L ...

. In November 2016, McCaskill was signed by Warriors Boxing. After fighting local boxers, McCaskill challenged Irish Olympic gold-medal boxer

Katie Taylor Katie Taylor (born 2 July 1986) is an Irish professional boxer and former footballer. She is a two-weight world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion, having held the WBA title since 2017; the IBF title since 2018; and the ...

for the WBA female

title. She was defeated by Taylor via

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(98–91, 97–92, 97–92), in a fight held at the

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London, and is situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an inter ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on December 13, 2017. On October 6, 2018, McCaskill defeated two-weight world champion

Érica Farías Érica Anabella Farías (born 13 July 1984), known as "La Pantera", is an Argentine professional boxer. She is a two-weight world champion, having held the WBC female lightweight title from 2011 to 2014 and the WBC female super lightwei ...

for the WBC female

title at the

Wintrust Arena Wintrust Arena at McCormick Square, previously referred to as DePaul Arena or McCormick Place Events Center, is a 10,387-seat sports venue in the Near South Side community area of Chicago that opened in 2017. It is the current home court for ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

, winning her first world title by unanimous decision, with the judges' scorecards reading 98–92, 97–93 and 96–94. McCaskill retained her WBC title and won the WBA female super lightweight title against

Anahí Ester Sánchez Anahí Ester Sánchez (born 21 July 1991) is an Argentine professional boxer. She is a three-weight world champion, having held the IBF female super-featherweight title in 2016; the WBA female lightweight title in 2017; and the WBA female supe ...

via unanimous decision (99–91, 98–92, 96–94) in a bout held at the

MGM National Harbor MGM National Harbor is a casino hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. It opened on December 8, 2016, constructed at a cost of $1.4 billion. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. ...

Oxon Hill, Maryland Oxon Hill is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Oxon Hill is a suburb of Washington, located southeast of the downtown district and east of Alexandria, Virginia. It ...

on May 25, 2019. On October 12, 2019, McCaskill defended her unified titles in a rematch against Érica Farías at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. She retained her titles with a Majority decision win, with two judges scoring the bout 97–91 and 96–92 in favour of McCaskill, and the third scoring it a draw at 94–94. On August 15, 2020, McCaskill became the first person to defeat

Cecilia Braekhus Cecilia is a personal name originating in the name of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. The name has been popularly used in Europe (particularly the United Kingdom and Italy, where in 2018 it was the 43rd most popular name for girls born ...

. The match was for the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC, and WBO world titles at welterweight. In 2021, she defeated Braekhus again in a rematch, retaining her status as the undisputed champion at welterweight. In 2022, she lost to

Chantelle Cameron Chantelle Cameron (born 14 May 1991) is a British professional boxer. She is a world champion in two weight classes and the current undisputed light-welterweight champion, having held the WBC title since 2020; the IBF and ''Ring'' magazine ti ...

in a match held in Abu Dhabi. McCaskill is trained by Rick Ramos and managed by Warriors Boxing.

Professional boxing record

References

External links