Claressa Maria Shields, an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist, was born on March 17, 1995.
She has held many world titles in three weight classes, including the undisputed women’s light middleweight title since March 2021, the undisputed women’s middleweight title from 2019 to 2020, and the combined women’s super middleweight belts from the WBC and IBF from 2017 to 2018.
Shields now holds the record for winning the most professional matches before becoming the two- and three-weight world champion and is often called the best female boxer.
She is currently recognised as the top active female middleweight in the world by BoxRec, as well as the greatest female boxer overall by ESPN and The Ring.
Where does Claressa Shields come from?
Shields was a junior in high school in Flint, Michigan, where she was born and raised, in May 2012. Her father, Bo Shields, who had competed in clandestine leagues, introduced her to the sport.
From the time Shields was two years old until she was nine, Bo was incarcerated. He discussed boxer Laila Ali with her once he was released, piqued her interest in the sport.
Bo, however, insisted that Shields wait until she was eleven before taking up boxing since he thought it was a sport for males.
She started boxing at Berston Field House in Flint at that time, where she also met Jason Crutchfield, her trainer and coach.
Shields attributes her grandmother’s encouragement to her decision not to accept limitations because of her gender.
How was the career of Claressa Shields?
Shields is the first boxer in history—male or female—to concurrently hold all four of boxing’s main world championships—the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO—in two weight divisions.
Shields had an illustrious amateur career and became the first American boxer to win back-to-back Olympic medals in the women’s middleweight class in 2012 and 2016.
Shields won the 165 lb (75 kg) middleweight class in the U.S. Olympic Trials in February 2012 as the competition’s youngest boxer.
She qualified for the 2012 Olympics in May, the first time women’s boxing had been included as an event, and she later became the first American woman to take home an Olympic gold medal in the sport.
Professional or amateur, British boxer Savannah Marshall is the source of her lone defeat. She was recognised as the Female Fighter of the Year in 2018 by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Shields took home the “Biggest Powerhouse” title for the 2017 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Award. Shields was admitted into the Hall of Fame of the USA Boxing Alumni Association in 2018.
She received the 2018 Christy Martin Award – Female Fighter of the Year from the Boxing Writers Association of America.
On June 10, 2021, Shields made her MMA debut at PFL 4 against Brittney Elkin. In round three, she obtained a technical knockout victory.
Initially, she was slated to face an unnamed opponent in her second match on August 27, 2021, at the PFL 9 tournament.
