Exclusive: World champion makes her UK debut on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr, with Floyd Mayweather Jnr flying into Cardiff to watch
Claressa Shields first met Mike Tyson when she was 16. Back then, she was a virtual unknown, headed to her first Olympic Games at London 2012. Tyson, she recalls, was clearly impressed. “Oh, you’re a baby and going to the Olympics,” he told her, Shields laughing at the memory, “I’m jealous,” he said.
A decade on and Shields is considered the greatest of all time in her craft, or as she puts it the “GWOAT”, the Greatest Woman Of All Time. Olympic champion in London and Rio and a three-weight world professional champion, the American believes she is the carbon copy of Muhammad Ali, but on her own terms.
In her journey to the top she has been supported by boxing icons, including Tyson, who she describes as a “long lost uncle” after she bumped into him 10 years on from that first meeting.
“[He] remembered who I was,” she says. “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.”
“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 [original] 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.”
This weekend, as she makes her UK debut on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr vs Welshman Liam Williams, it will be Floyd Mayweather Jnr who is flying into Cardiff to support her. Shields has been sparring in camp with the 44-year-old who will watch her defend her world middleweight titles against the unbeaten Slovenian challenger Ema Kozin.
Brash and vivacious, victory for Shields over Kozin is an important step along the path to setting up a women’s superfight. Should Shields’ nemesis Savannah Marshall – the Briton who inflicted the only ever career defeat over the American – defend her title on March 12 in Newcastle, the two elite female fighters are expected to collide in the UK later this year. The narrative is perfect – their trajectories have mirrored each other, and by rights the match-up would merit a big crowd and a big billing. Sky Sports, and promoter Boxxer have already put their weight behind Shields, signing her on a seven-figure contract, in the belief that they have a star on their hands.
Within Shields burns a fire to right a wrong from nine years ago, when Marshall defeated her in the amateur ranks and became world No 1. It remains Shields’ only career defeat, amateur or professional. Meanwhile, her Hartlepool-born opponent has had a slow but strong rise to world champion, and is progressing brilliantly under the tutelage of Tyson Fury’s uncle, Peter Fury, as her trainer.
“Any girl I’ve fought against I’ve always taken something out of them,” says Shields, musing on a future match-up with Marshall. “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. There’s not a lot of girls calling for rematches with me. If it does happen, it will be a great trilogy.”
Coming from Shields, those words are pretty mild. Last year she baulked at suggestions she could fight on the undercard of YouTuber Jake Paul, and claimed she could beat him up with one arm. “I can get in the ring and spar men and the kind of attitude I have, and the s—I talk, these guys know, don’t let me get in there and talk s— to you,” she says. “I was very serious [about fighting Jake Paul],” says Shields.
Paul has since thrown his hat into the ring in promoting seven-weight world champion Amanda Serrano in a huge fight with unbeaten Irish sensation Katie Taylor who will meet at Madison Square Garden on April 30 in one of the biggest women’s fights of all time.
Shields, though, remains fearless. “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.”
Claressa Shields vs Ema Kozin is live on Sky Sports on Saturday night from the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff