The timing is difficult to separate from what happened only one week earlier.

Tamm Thibeault had just received considerable attention following her latest performance. Fans were discussing the Canadian middleweight as perhaps the most serious threat to Shields, but the conversation wasn’t limited to her boxing ability.

Thibeault was also receiving frequent compliments about her looks.

Those comments weren’t prompted by a glamorous entrance, revealing clothes or an elaborate makeover. Fans were commenting on Thibeault’s face after the fight, with her hair pulled back, hand wraps still on and little or no visible makeup. The attention came while Thibeault looked completely natural.

Seven days later, Shields arrived nearly undressed by normal boxing-event standards.

There is no evidence Shields chose her outfit in response to Thibeault, so the connection can’t be presented as fact. Still, the sequence is difficult to ignore.

Shields follows women’s boxing closely. She would surely be aware that Thibeault is increasingly mentioned as a future opponent and that fans had spent the previous week praising both her talent and appearance.

What makes the situation curious is that Thibeault never started an image competition. She wasn’t trying to create a glamorous moment or compete with Shields for attention outside the ring. The compliments came naturally.

Viewed against that, Shields’ appearance can come across as trying extremely hard to win a competition nobody announced.

Shields had already been embracing a more glamorous public image, so Thibeault didn’t create that transformation. The question is whether the sudden attention surrounding a talented, naturally attractive potential rival encouraged Shields to take her own presentation to an extreme.

One week later, she certainly did.