Claressa Shields: “I am not going to retire until I’m 35, I have got eight more years in this game and I just want to enjoy it and fight the best.”

Claressa Shields: “I am not going to retire until I’m 35, I have got eight more years in this game and I just want to enjoy it and fight the best.”

Just over a week after her sensational performance on a night of many celebrations at the O2 Arena in London, which didn’t only steal the show, it owned it, Claressa Shields was back on media duties. A four-hour stint of relentless interviews, no doubt answering the same mundane predictable questions over and over, mine no doubt only further adding to the repetition of her morning. But Shields was on fine form as ever, over Zoom, wearing one of her world title belts with pride. In truth, she could switch belts for every interview over those four hours and probably still have a few in reserve. She is gathering quite the collection.

The win over Savannah Marshall was the perfect fitting end to a night that highlighted everything that is good about the sport. Shields believed where some didn’t, and she told me the win over her old rival came as no surprise to her:

“It was an incredible night. Everything played out the way it was supposed to play out. I won dominantly the way I knew I could.”

The entry to the ring was in full Apollo Creed mode, matching attire, the flawless dance routine, at least to my untrained eye. We didn’t quite get Living in America, but it wouldn’t have been out of place. Shields was simply sensational, more than a touch on the theatrical, on the biggest night of her life. Booed heavily into the ring. Cheered out of it. Shields came to the ring a star. And left it a superstar. The boos ringing in her ears did little to dampen the confidence of a fighter who knew something we didn’t. For Shields, she knew the boos would quickly subside once reality hit home:

“I used it for motivation. When they were booing I thought I am going to make you all fans really really quickly.”

Despite her long impressive resume, there was a theory from many, that Marshall simply had to turn up and land a big punch to win. A theory of much simplicity, and one lacking validity. Shields deserved better. You sense the lingering doubters inspired Shields even more. The impressive American in many ways, fought with controlled spite, maybe a little anger, to dominate an incredibly brave but ultimately outgunned Marshall.

“Everybody was counting me out. Savannah Marshall was going to knock me out, she was too big, too strong. Nobody was going to give me a fair chance,” Shields told me with obvious glee that the naysayers were proved wrong once more. Not the first time she has made fools out of so-called experts.

“I just know what I know. When they say some people don’t know shit about boxing, it’s true. They didn’t know what I knew. What me and my team knew. We had a game plan. We worked on the game plan over and over again. We knew exactly what I was supposed to do, and I went out and did it.” Shields added.

And maybe that was the difference on the night. A game plan that was meticulously prepared and executed quite brilliantly. Did Marshall only have one route to victory, Shields believes so:

“That made it easy for me. Knowing that all she was going to do was try to land a big punch to get me out of there. I knew it would be very hard to knock me out because I knew she would find it difficult to land punches on me.”

The narrative leading up to the fight was about revenge, redemption or repeat. The big sell of the loss, the only defeat inside a boxing ring Shields has ever suffered, to Marshall in 2012. It was an irrelevance, in reality, it mattered little as to who would win ten years later. Shields, still a teenager, still learning her trade, moved on quickly, and to her, the loss in China all those years ago was of little importance she told me:

“It wasn’t important at all. Something that happened ten years ago I wouldn’t let that dictate my life. I did let it go because I won the Olympics two months later. We all know the story, the world championships, I won the Olympics twice. And then I turn pro and I am a twelve-time world champion, three-division world champion, two times undisputed. I already knew I had become a better fighter than I was then. I knew I was stronger and smarter and that I had a better boxing IQ. But that was their selling point of the fight. People wanted to see me in a competitive fight, we’ve got to see this fight, they all thought that she was the one, they were picking Marshall to beat me. I didn’t really care about the amateur loss. Once it happened, I thought ok, make sure you win the Olympics. I just made sure I moved forward. Mentally, I think Savannah Marshall always thought she could beat me and just knock me out and I think it stopped her from developing and growing as a fighter.”

Winning in the manner that she did on that historic all-female fight card in front of 20,000 initially hostile fans, will be a hard night to top. But Shields always seems to have a plan, ambitions that are unfulfilled. The now undisputed middleweight champion of the world, her third time in that role, sees options on either side of her current weight division:

“There will always be other girls for me to fight. At 154, we have Terri Harper and Natasha Jonas. At 147 we have Jessica McCaskill. We’ve got 175lbs world champions, we can do a rematch with Franchon Crews-Dezurn. There are a lot of things we can do. I am not going to retire until I’m 35, I have got eight more years in this game and I just want to enjoy it and fight the best. If they want me to rematch Marshall, we can do it in the US and I will win again.”

The name of the unified world super-lightweight champion Natasha Jonas was mentioned pre-fight and again post-fight. Jonas has said she would willingly accept the invitation, and even go to America to test her skills against the unbeaten American. Shields doesn’t want to rest on her laurels, that attitude to test herself against the best hasn’t dimmed since that mesmerising performance just over a week ago. Jonas could very well get her wish to share a ring with Shields. It looks like a fight of real interest and intrigue for the two-time Olympic gold medalist:

“Even though Marshall was bigger and had all these knockouts, I never thought her skills were up there with mine. Even though I see her knocking out all these girls, I still see flaws in her game. Natasha Jonas is a more sound fighter, she may have better skills, so I will have to do my homework. The girls at 147 and 154 their skills are good. But I don’t think no fighter is better skilled than me.”

But before any thoughts of her next ring appearance, Shields has MMA commitments to honour first:

“I have another year with the PFL, I am going to have three MMA fights, I don’t plan on returning to the ring until December next year.”

When Shields does return to the ring late next year, she will look to add even more credence to her GWOAT claims. Is Shields the greatest female fighter of all time, even over Katie Taylor, Shields strongly believes that she is:

“When you talk skill-wise between me and Katie, I think Katie is an excellent fighter, she has power, speed, just great offence. But she does lack a good defence, she gets hit a lot. I don’t get hit a lot inside the ring. She has defence on her feet but she doesn’t have it on her upper body, and that’s where I think I am the better fighter there. If we are talking pound-for-pound I am One-A she is One-B. But the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. Katie struggles with fighters who come to rough her up, girls like Delfine Persoon and Jessica McCaskill. If I was to box those girls it would be a boxing lesson. They are so aggressive and I would use their aggression against them. I wouldn’t get hit a lot I would be able to neutralise them with my jab and my combinations. But Katie’s technique lets her down when she comes up against aggressive fighters, that is her only downfall that I can see. But if you go out to just box Katie, she will box your shoes off, punch your ears off and box circles around you. Katie is a very skilled fighter but the thing she doesn’t have compared to me, is that when I fight an aggressive fighter I don’t lose my technique or form. And that’s why I rate myself pound-for-pound number one.”

Shields is only 27, and probably nowhere near her fighting peak. Her GWOAT claims are likely to be enhanced further in the coming years. That tough harrowing early life has hardened Shields and instilled a quite incredible untouchable self-belief. It was certainly London calling for her, the pantomime villain, the evil imposter of the piece against the hometown fighter who was expected to leave her lying on the floor unconscious, humbled and beaten once again by her perceived nemesis. But Shields knew it wouldn’t end that way. Now we all know.