Who runs the world? Girls!
Claressa Shields just made history as the first boxer to become a two-division undisputed world champ, The Root reports.
Claressa Shields is a nine-time world champion who is trailblazing a path for women athletes everywhere. According to The Glow Up, she got started at just 11-years-old, building an impressive amateur career that made her the first American boxer to win back-to-back medals at the Olympics. She then became the undisputed female middleweight champ, taking the self-proclaimed title of “Greatest Woman Of All Time (G.W.O.A.T.).” Now the Flint, Michigan native is living up to her name. She came out victorious against Marie-Eve Dicaire in her most recent fight, becoming the first boxer, man or woman, to become a two-division undisputed world champ. She took Dicaire’s IBF title and the WBA world title while keeping her WBO and WBC junior middleweight titles.
Just became Undisputed for the 2nd time Friday, no bumps, no bruises ☺️ #GWOAT #Claressashields pic.twitter.com/3zZ5eSWg6V
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) March 10, 2021
Shields demolished Dicaire in the ring, the formerly undefeated IBF Super Welterweight Champion spending most of her time trying to avoid Sheilds’ blows.
“All three judges scored the fight 100-90, a clean sweep for the fighter who calls herself the greatest of all time. Shields landed 116 of 409 punches, and Dicaire landed 31 of 263. Shields landed double-digit punches in seven of the 10 rounds,” ESPN reported.
“She never really wanted to win the fight. She just wanted to be able to say she went all 10, which I don’t have that kind of mentality. To me, that’s weak, and I’d rather go down on my shield any day and give it a good fight. But she wanted to stay away. She wanted to hold. She wanted to elbow and do all that crazy stuff. I felt like I was winning the fight, but I didn’t get to display what I wanted to display,” Shields said of the fight.
The G.W.O.A.T. took a huge risk with the fight, giving up guaranteed money to take her chances with headlining an all women’s pay-per-view special. It was the first in almost two decades and her take would be determined based on sales. Shields took the risk to continue her advocacy for gender equality in sports.
“For a woman to be an athlete, we have to work a bit harder. Especially to be a top athlete..We have to continue to fight. Women are never gonna just stop doing sports, they can’t make us disappear. As soon as people realize that, they’ll give us our just due and we’ll be able to flourish better and they’ll stop holding women in sports back,” said Shields.
Congratulations, Claressa!
Photo Courtesy of Carlos Osorio/G/O Media/Associated Press