Jessica McCaskill

Jessica McCaskill (born September 8, 1984 ) is an American professional boxer. She is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the undisputed, IBO and Ring female welterweight titles; the WBC female super-lightweight title and the WBA female super-lightweight title. She also challenged for the WBA lightweight title.

Early life
Native to Belleville, Illinois (part of Greater St. Louis), 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 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 (TKO) victory against Tyrea Nichole Duncan at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. In November 2016, McCaskill was signed by Warriors Boxing.

After fighting local boxers, McCaskill challenged Irish Olympic gold-medal boxer Katie Taylor for the WBA female lightweight title. She was defeated by Taylor via unanimous decision (98–91, 97–92, 97–92), in a fight held at the York Hall in London on December 13, 2017.

On October 6, 2018, McCaskill defeated two-weight world champion Érica Farías for the WBC female super lightweight title at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, 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 via unanimous decision (99–91, 98–92, 96–94) in a bout held at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland 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. 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 in a match held in Abu Dhabi.

McCaskill is trained by Rick Ramos and managed by Warriors Boxing.

2024
Early 2024 it was announced that McCaskill would defend her WBC, WBA, IBO and Ring welterweight titles against Ivana Habazin on April 20, 2024 in Croatia. The fight did not go ahead, as on March 14, 2024 it was announced that McCaskill - who had vacated the WBC title - would defend her WBA, IBO and Ring Magazine welterweight titles against Lauren Price on May 11, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales. Price won the contest by unanimous technical decision after an accidental clash of heads that took place in the fifth round caused an injury to McCaskill's eye and she was ruled unable to continue at the start of round nine.