There aren’t many main boxing matches remaining for Claressa Shields.
That’s why Shields (15-0, 3 KOs) has hopped up and down in weight courses, lately leaping as much as 175-pounds to seize a pair of world titles after beforehand being a titleholder at 168 and the undisputed champion at 160 and 154.
And it’s why Shields has additionally jumped at different alternatives, be it competing in combined martial arts or selling a brand new main movement image about her life.
In any other case, there’s simply not sufficient depth on the heavier weight courses the place Shields competes. What, then, can her promoter do to deliver his fighter the eye and paydays she’s looking for?
“For Claressa, due to the place she stands and what she represents for ladies in the US and all world wide, it’s as vital the place she fights as who she fights,” Dmitriy Salita stated on the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast.
One potential alternative within the “who” class is Savannah Marshall, who gave Shields her solely novice loss. However once they met within the execs in October 2022, it was Shields successful through unanimous resolution. Marshall has since moved as much as tremendous middleweight, defeating Franchon Crews-Dezurn through majority resolution to turn out to be that division’s new undisputed champion.
“Definitely the rematch with Savannah Marshall is all the time attention-grabbing,” Salita stated.
However what concerning the “the place” class Salita talked about?
“We’ll struggle within the Center East. We’ll struggle in Africa,” he stated. “I consider that will be very vital and really particular and one thing that may transcend sports activities. It would be a human curiosity story that goes above and past the game of boxing. That may be one thing I’d intention to do. That may be vital and historic.”
Shields, a 29-year-old from Flint, Michigan, has fought outdoors of the US earlier than, in fact in the course of the amateurs and the Olympics but in addition twice as a professional, performing in London and Cardiff. In combined martial arts, Shields competed this February at an occasion in Saudi Arabia.
For Shields, doing what brings consideration isn’t nearly advertising herself, however her sport as properly.
“There’s been a number of debate on-line about who the best girl is, and indisputably it’s Claressa Shields. The one cause this dialog takes place is, most vital, due to Claressa’s accomplishments but in addition due to her character and since she places herself on the market,” Salita stated. “She not solely walks the stroll, but in addition talks the discuss, which is essential as a result of girls’s boxing is a lot better than it ever was, however it’s nonetheless going by means of birthing pains, and it takes a character and a fighter like Claressa Shields to push the curiosity ahead.”
Observe David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His e book, “Preventing Phrases: The Coronary heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is accessible on Amazon.
