Claressa Shields fights tend to follow a familiar pattern. There is about a thirty second period at the beginning of the fight in which her opponents look like they may be able to bother her in some capacity, until it becomes clear what Shields is doing.
For every opponent that faces Shields, it is the biggest fight of their career in terms of stakes both financial and otherwise. Understandably, they tend to come out of the gate energetic, convinced of their ability to be the one who finally takes out the one who calls herself the G.W.O.A.T. They rush forward, and Shields allows it, fully comfortable in her prowess fighting off the ropes. Her opponent walks in, gets countered with a multi-punch combination or two, and thinks “oh s—t, maybe not.” In that moment, Shields makes them question themselves, but has also gathered all the answers she needs as far as that will be coming at her for the rest of the night. From then on, the fight unfolds at the pace and in the geography that Shields prefers until the final bell sounds.
Shields’ bout this past Saturday against Ema Kozin stuck to the same script. Kozin, a southpaw pressure fighter, was allowed to walk Shields back in the opening moments of the bout. Kozin was still tentative but was in the position in the ring where she likely envisioned the bulk of her effort taking place, with her on the front foot, Shields on her back foot, on or near the ropes. Shields enabled this to happen for a little less than a minute, in the process figuring out precisely how Kozin would feint, when she would attack and what her blows felt like. Once she’d gathered that information, she landed a straight right hand that caused Kozin to fall in and hold on. When they broke, the fight resumed in the center of the ring, and Shields had effectively won the fight in that moment.
Shields battered Kozin over ten rounds, some of which became slightly uncomfortable to watch as she hammered her opponent around the ring with little resistance, seldom absorbing any blows in the process. The scores were a complete shutout, 100-90 across the board, as Shields retained her WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight titles.
It’s important to put Shields’ dominance as a professional, this most recent fight included, into proper perspective. Outside of a knockdown against Hanna Gabriels, there have been no dramatic moments whatsoever during her career, just pure dominance. Since June of 2018, the date of the Gabriels fight, Shields has lost a round to one fighter, Christina Hammer, who managed to edge a few rounds on 98-92 and 98-91 (twice) scorecards. Hammer and Gabriels are the only two fighters to win a round against Shields in her pro career.
It would be an easy assumption to make that Shields has simply been feasting on the easiest possible opposition. But one look at the opponents she’s defeated and what they’ve done since immediately disproves that notion. Her most recent opponent, Marie-Eve Dicaire, already has another world title and is looking to unify in the near future. Hammer has won three straight, and was regarded as not just Shields’ best available challenge at the time, but an all-time great at the time they fought. Femke Hermans came painfully close to defeating Elin Cederroos for a vacant 168-pound title in her next bout after losing to Shields, has won three straight and will face Savannah Marshall in March (more on her later). Hannah Rankin has gone on to win a 154-pound title. Hanna Gabriels is the current WBC heavyweight champion. And Shields’ opponent from her pro debut, Franchon Crews Dezurn, is a unified 168-pound world champion who is looking to become undisputed when she faces Cederroos in April.
In all, seven of Shields’ 12 professional opponents are currently ranked in Ring Magazine’s Top 5 in various weight classes. That includes Kozin, who entered the Shields bout ranked No. 3 at both middleweight and super middleweight.
Some will point to the overall lack of depth in the weight classes Shields has campaigned at, which is certainly a valid point. The aforementioned Dicaire’s recent title win came over Cynthia Lozano, a brave but wholly unfit fighter for higher caliber competition who was ranked by the WBC and made title bout eligible simply due to a lack of other eligible fighters. However, Shields has never been in with the Lozano types, rather, she’s completely outclassed fighters like Dicaire.
When top level women’s fighters in this weight neighborhood are matched against one another, it’s clear that they are capable, championship-caliber fighters. When they fight Shields, they look completely hopeless.
The issue of depth in particular weight classes in women’s boxing is of course due to systemic barriers that have dissuaded or otherwise prevented women from competing in the sport through the years and in some cases still to this day. However, time has shown that there should be no questioning the ability of Shields’ opponents through the years, they have all been good fighters relative to their competition. But like all things pertaining to women in boxing, the treatment and analysis of Shields’ dominance over those opponents hasn’t been equitable.
It’s a situation that mirrors the discussion around women’s international ice hockey, where historically, Canada and the United States have been dominant on every level. Last week, Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno wrote a piece titled “Why Women’s Hockey Doesn’t Belong At The Olympics,” which received significant backlash on social media, including from academics like Dr. Courtney Szto, assistant professor at Queen’s University.
“We only ever have these discussions about “too dominant” when it comes to women’s sports (e.g., Serena Williams, Annika Sörenstam, UCONN Basketball…),” tweeted Szto, “In men’s sports these are called dynasties and it’s a ‘privilege’ to witness such dominance.”
In a 2018 article titled “A Lack of Depth? Dominance and the dismissal of women’s sports.” Szto expanded upon the difference in attitude towards dominant male athletes and dominant women in sport.
“We don’t jump to this particular conclusion because we assume all the other men competing are worthy of being there and that everyone present is the best that time period has to offer,” wrote Szto. “If we are willing to engage in this conversation with respect to women’s sports then we better be willing to entertain the idea in men’s sports too: maybe the competitors we are looking at right now aren’t all that good. The other option is that everyone is pretty damn good and once and awhile we are blessed to witness some generational talents.”
“We hate when there is a revolving door of world #1 women’s tennis players because the sport has no leader to get behind and we hate when someone holds the title for too long because it’s “boring.” This is a precarious expectation that is disproportionately laid at the feet of women athletes.”
The good news for even the most fervent detractors is that in these analogies, Shields has her 2017 South Carolina to her UConn, or, although the countries are jumbled, her USA to her Canadian women’s hockey. It’s Savannah Marshall, the last woman to beat Shields in a boxing match, a victory at the 2012 World Amateur Championships when Shields was 17.
Marshall holds the WBO middleweight title, and is regarded as one of the best pure punchers in women’s boxing. She and Shields have circled one another since Marshall turned pro in 2017, and their war or words has been constant ever since.
It reached a boiling point on Saturday, when Marshall was seated ringside to watch Shields’ victory over Kozin. This was by design, of course, as Shields signed a two-fight guaranteed seven-figure deal with Sky Sports, the second bout of which is assumed to be against Marshall provided Marshall defeats Hermans next month. During the bout, Marshall feigned falling asleep when cameras panned to her, and found herself in front of a camera and a microphone following the bout, face to face with Shields.
With Shields’ promoter Dmitriy Salita and manager Mark Taffet, as well as Marshall’s promoter Ben Shalom standing behind them, Shields and Marshall had their first meaningful in-person interaction in years. The explosive back-and-forth was precisely what any promoter would want, the perfect tense shouting match that plays well on newsreels and promotional highlight packs.
Fittingly, Marshall’s stance echoed that of Shields’ detractors in the boxing fanbase. She accused Shields of being boring, of her opposition being soft, and declared that she would be the one to finally best her.
“You just went ten rounds with an absolute child. People were walking out after round five,” said Marshall. “I think if you perform that way against me, I’ll absolutely wipe the floor with you.”
If Shields is to go on and beat Marshall, she’ll have at least convinced her biggest doubter, who also happens to be her biggest rival.
Corey Erdman is a boxing writer and commentator based in Toronto, ON, Canada. Follow him on Twitter @corey_erdman.