Full of life and vigour world boxing champion Claressa Shields is enthusing about her venture into mixed martial arts, how a link-up with Mike Tyson was like “being with my long lost uncle” and that “beating up men” in sparring and indeed in the ring, such as Youtube sensation Jake Paul, is far from beyond the 26-year-old originally from Flint, Michigan.
There is a women’s superfight brewing between the American Shields and
Britain’s Savannah Marshall with a narrative both compelling and
timely. Their trajectories have mirrored each other; it has the
perfect build. And by rights, it merits a big crowd and big billing.
Both women will fight on the same card in Birmingham on December 11.
Then next year, around March, the showdown.
Shields is a marvel: she as a harrowing back story of transformation,
double Olympic champion, three-weight world professional champion,
undefeated as a professional – as they both are – and the
self-proclaimed ‘GWOAT” – Greatest Woman Of All Time.
As Shields is happy to point out, Muhammad Ali was self-anointed as
‘The Greatest’, and the American believes she is the carbon copy of
the great heavyweight, yet on her terms. Gone is the surly 17 year
old, as she was then, making history as the first Olympic women’s
middleweight champion in history in London, and instead a fire burns
within to right a wrong from nine years ago, when Marshall, from
Hartlepool, defeated her in the amateur ranks, and became world number
one, It remains Shields’ only defeat. Meantime, Marshall has had a sow
but strong rise, is a world champion, has been promoted by Floyd
Mayweather, and is progressing brilliantly under the tutelage ofTyson
Fury’s uncle, Peter Fury, as her trainer. Shields is also fighting in MMA, signed by the PFL in the USA. “If you’re the Gwoat you should be
able to box, you should be able to do MMA, fight smaller weight classes, bigger weight classes. I really wanted to try MMA and that is what I’m doing,” she told Telegraph Women’s Sport. Tonight, Shields has her second MMA fight against Abigail Montes (2-0) in the PFL.
Then all thoughts will turn to December 11, Birmingham, where Shields and
Marshall appear on the same Sky Sports’ BOXXER event in The Midlands.
Shields ran into Mike Tyson recently. “I met Mike Tyson when I was 16
before I went to the Olympics. It was the whole Olympic team and I was
the only one to win gold in 2012. When he met me and asked me how old
I was, I told him 16, and he said, oh, you’re a baby and going to the
Olympics. I’m jealous.”
Shields told The Telegraph: “Then to meet him again 10 years later
was great – it was like meeting my long-lost uncle. He didn’t remember
that night but no biggie. Even though he didn’t remember that night he
still remembered who I was. He was still a fan of my boxing and of me
doing mma. Mike Tyson actually liked the way I boxed, which didn’t
surprise me, because I’m the Gwoat, but to hear that and talk to him
was special. We talked before we went on air and after we went on
air.”
“I spent a good three hours with him. He was like, I want you to get
in contact with my people and have you back. You’re the kind of icon
women’s sport needs. You’re the one. To hear that from him built so
much confidence in me, which I already have. If the OG can respect me,
then these networks and stuff should also respect me. He knows how
hard it is to have to box and have that IQ and that power and
discipline.”
And, moreover, Shields was serious when she said she would fight Jake
Paul, who meets Tommy Fury in the ring on Dec 18.
“I was very serious. Skills pay the bills, size don’t matter. I think
that if Jake Paul got inside the ring with me he would get countered a
lot. He would get hit with some hard body shots. I know what to do
when I get inside the ring and face a man. To this day I still spar
Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell, a lot of other guys from the Fifth
Street Gym in Florida.”
“I can get in the ring and spar men and the kind of attitude I have,
and the shit I talk, these guys know, don’t let me get in there and
talk shit to you. Because I talk shit while we’re sparring. That’s
when they really get mad. They’re not allowed to hold back. As soon as
they start chilling, I turn it up. A lot of my male counterparts get
mad at me when I fight against the women.”
“They’re like, Yo, why didn’t you hit her to the body more? When I
spar against the men I have a higher IQ. I have to step my game up
because they’re so fast and sharp and trying to counter me. I’m very
defensive but also aggressive, fifty fifty. When they see me fighting
sometimes, they say, you were headhunting, you would’ve stopped her if
you went to the body. But I’m like, yeah, but if the head shot is
there I’m going for it, right? They just hate it when they hear people
say I don’t have power because the men I spar know I have lots of
power, especially to the body. But in the fights the girls IQ don’t be
up there. So I just get the decision and go home.”
Then thoughts turn to the rivalry with Marshall, who is 30. Both women
are unbeaten in eleven professional fights. “Any girl I’ve fought
again I’ve always taken something out of them. They always fight
different. Me fighting against Marshall, everybody’s talking about a
trilogy or a two fight deal, or whatever, but after she gets hit by me
in the first fight she might not want to do a second fight. Me, I’ll
be all for it, but it’s different when you get in with me now. There’s
not a lot of girls calling for rematches with me. If it does happen,
it will be a great trilogy. Once you fight a fighter once, you learn a
lot about them and you become better yourself. Look at Wilder-Fury 1,
draw, second fight, Fury knocks him out, and in the third fight Fury
knocks him out but later. It’s all different.”
Burning inside Shields is the desire to put the record straight
against Marshall. It will be in the UK. But Shields could not give a
jot about home advantage. “I can’t say that Savannah Marshall is a
super athlete. It’s not like a dislike for her, I promise you it’s
not. It’s just this: look at her opponents. I fought against Hannah
Gabriels, Christina Hammer, Tori Nelson, Franchon Crews. These girls
were undefeated, had world titles, and had been in the game for a long
time. I fought some heavy hitters.”
“She beat Hannah Rankin, who is a very decent fighter, but I beat
Hannah too. They be like, how come you didn’t knock her out?After the
big fight with Savannah Marshall in 2022, after I beat her, and shut
up all those naysayers who say she has the antidote to beat Claressa
Shields, I think I’m going to take a break from boxing and spend that
whole year, 2022, focusing on mma, getting better, and learning.”