Flint native Claressa Shields now owns the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring women’s middleweight titles after beating Christina Hammer in the headlining bout of a Showtime boxing card on Saturday.
Shields won a unanimous decision, 98-92, on all three judges’ scorecards. She moves to 9-0 as a professional and proclaimed herself to be the best women’s boxer ever.
“I don’t even know if I’m dreaming right now,” Shields said after the bout. “I don’t even know if I’m dreaming. I don’t know what this is.”
“Women’s boxing, we on fire. I can’t wait to see what’s next for us.”
The multi-year lead-up to the unification bout was highlighted by in-ring altercations and sharp words everywhere from social media to interviews to press conferences. And when the final bell rang on Saturday night, the two fighters declined to embrace or even touch gloves.
But Shields handled her business in the ring. She was absolutely dominant, landing 44.3 percent of her power shots, shutting down Hammer’s usually effective jab and showing phenomenal defensive capabilities. She clearly hurt Hammer in the eighth round, and Hammer’s ineffective accuracy (she only landed 13.4 percent of her punches) couldn’t do much to stop her. After the match, Shields said she wanted a piece of Cecilian Braekhus, the No. 1 pound for pound fighter in the world who’s also two weight divisions below Shields, or Savannah Marshall, the only woman who beat Shields in the amateurs.
Just three years ago, Shields became the first two-time Olympic gold medalist in U.S. amateur boxing history. Shields won a gold medal in the women’s middleweight division at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. As an amateur, she went 77-1 with 19 knockouts.
In 2018, the Boxing Writers Association of America named her the Female Fighter of the Year. She is also currently ranked No.3 pound-for-pound female boxer by Boxing Action Magazine.
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