Claressa Shields: "The end goal is to be the best boxer and the best combat athlete that I can be."
When Claressa Shields turned professional in 2016, the landscape of her sport was very different. The revolution on her side of the sport hadn't yet truly begun. But the embryonic shoots were beginning to flower. Katie Taylor, with one simple private message to Eddie Hearn, changed plenty. But Shields more than played her part also.
After winning two Olympic gold medals in London and Rio, the American chased a new challenge. Only one defeat in seventy-eight amateur fights. Fifty-one wins on the bounce followed after Savannah Marshall inflicted that one solitary blemish on her resume. Multiple titles on the world stage. Shields had done everything she could possibly do as an amateur.
Shields was only 21 when her new challenge was unleashed in 2016. But even at such a young age, Shields was already aware of her importance to her craft. She talked about leading the rise of women's boxing worldwide. But the two-time Olympic Champion looked to be ahead of her time. The acceptance of women's boxing had yet to arrive. Apathy and blatant ignorance of her craft were perhaps her biggest fight to date. But very quickly, Claressa Shields started to make things happen for herself and indeed her sport.
Katie Taylor slowly started to change perceptions across the pond. Shields was doing exactly that on her side of the ocean. It was perhaps indicative of the times that the professional debut of the highly decorated amateur was against someone of the calibre of Franchon Crews-Dezurn. Shields beat her fellow American on points and earned herself $50,000 in the process. The revolution had begun. Shields would very quickly headline on Showtime. She was starting to change many things.
In just her 4th fight, Shields won her first world title courtesy of a thoroughly dominant stoppage victory over the previously unbeaten Nikki Adler. In five rounds, Adler only landed six punches. The victory over Adler earned Shields the WBC and IBF world super-middleweight baubles. Many more world titles would follow, including undisputed status at two different weights, and unified at a third. Those world titles at 154, 160, and 168 have shown her dominance at those weights, and later this month, Shields is going for even more gold.
On July 27th in Detroit, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse will defend her WBC heavyweight crown against Shields, with the vacant WBO world light-heavyweight title thrown in for good measure akin to what Sugar Ray Leonard and Donny LaLonde did all those years ago.
"The motivation is to show that size doesn't matter to some people," Shields says of why she is going above and beyond for her latest venture.
At 29, Shields could quite easily retire right now and ride off into the sunset with her glittering resume safe from even the harshest scrutiny. But she feels there is more to achieve and in two different sports.
Shields is three fights into her PFL MMA career, where another meeting with Savannah Marshall surely lies ahead. But the red-hot rivalry in boxing still has the look of unfinished business.
"I don't hate Savannah, I have a lot of respect for her. She was a great dance partner and I will dance with her again." A respectful Shields says of her past and future rival.
Shields is incredibly ambitious in her new sport. But there is still work to do in her initial sport. A legacy already secured. Now, she wants to enhance it even further.
"The end goal is to be the best boxer and the best combat athlete that I can be," Shields told FightPost. "At the end, I see myself being a six-division world champion. I see myself being undefeated. I see myself having an MMA world title. I think that would be career satisfaction."
Shields has risen from those incredibly horrifically traumatic times of her early years. "I wouldn't wish my past on my worst enemy," the American once said. Fighting adversity and winning has been a constant in her life. The incoming autobiography should have 'Resilience' firmly in the title. But her story is nowhere near finished yet.
Unbeaten in fourteen professional fights, Shields is well on her way to boxing's Hall of Fame. But there are challenges still out there for her.
"I want to fight all the girls that they say are good. I would love to share a ring with Katie. I would love to fight Amanda Serrano." Shields told me last month. But there is seemingly lingering beef with another undisputed champion of the world.
"I would love to share a ring with Alycia Baumgardner. Not because she is at the same level as the other girls, but it is the fact that she talks like she is, and I would love to make her look like an amateur if I was to get in the ring with her."
Fights with the likes of Taylor, Serrano, and Baumgardner would all have to be agreed at a catchweight. The idea of any of those fights might seem remote, even one of fantasy to some. But if there is a will, a way usually follows. If ever a fighter deserves another rivalry to match what the one with Savannah Marshall served up, it's Claressa Shields. Hopefully, it will come.
