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Claressa Shields: “I can’t believe I’m a Hall-of-Famer, and I’m still an active champion.” (Katy Kildee\/The Detroit News\/TNS) <\/p>\nClaressa Shields: “I can’t believe I’m a Hall-of-Famer, and I’m still an active champion.” (Katy Kildee\/The Detroit News\/TNS) <\/p>\n
DETROIT \u2014 Claressa Shields is in the prime of her historic boxing career, the GWOAT still going as strong as ever \u2014 and she\u2019s still undefeated as a professional.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t undefeated as an amateur. She was 77-1. At least, according to the record books.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy amateur career, you might as well say I was undefeated. I did not lose to her,\u201d Shields said recently, speaking of the 2012 loss to England\u2019s Savannah Marshall. \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shields, who began boxing in Flint at the age of 11 and now is 30, was honored for her amateur career last month, when she was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame during a gala at MotorCity Casino Hotel. It was a star-studded class that included the likes of Rasheed Wallace and Chris Chelios, but it was Shields that turned heads when she walked through the doors, followed by an entourage that included a film crew and rapper boyfriend Papoose. The two posed for photos on the red carpet.<\/p>\n
Then, Shields spoke with reporters, including The Detroit News, about the honor, which was no small thing. She was the first boxer inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame since Thomas \u201cHitman\u201d Hearns in 1997.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m a Hall of Famer, and I\u2019m still an active champion,\u201d Shields said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shields\u2019 boxing accomplishments have been well told. She won two gold medals in the Olympics, and as a professional, if there\u2019s a belt, she\u2019s probably won it. She\u2019s won at least 18 championship belts, and now is heavyweight boxing\u2019s undisputed champion.<\/p>\n
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Boxer Claressa Shields acknowledges the fans after her win over Maricela Cornejo in a middleweight bout, June 3, 2023, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Carlos Osorio, File) <\/p>\n
Shields is 17-0 as a professional, and her next fight will be Feb. 22 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, where she\u2019ll meet Franchon Crews-Dezurn. It\u2019s a rematch of their first professional fight, when Shields won by a unanimous decision in 2016. It\u2019s one of just two losses for Crews-Dezurn as a professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our second time fighting each other,\u201d Shields said. \u201cI know she wants to get her getback. … She wants to beat me more than anybody. So I look forward to fighting her. It\u2019s going to be a fighter\u2019s fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a 10-round fight with all the belts on the line and look forward to showing what I can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd showing what 8 million dollars looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ah, yes. The $8 million. This is Shields\u2019 first fight since she signed the landmark $8 million contract in November.<\/p>\n
The contract covers multiple fights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. God\u2019s timing is the best timing,\u201d Shields said. \u201cI\u2019m so happy that God didn\u2019t give me a million dollars when I was 17. I\u2019d be broke as a joke. It ain\u2019t funny.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so much more to come. Thanks for the $8 million. I\u2019m just ready to continue fighting and seeing what the future holds for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be Shields\u2019 eighth fight in Detroit, with the last three coming at Little Caesars Arena. That includes her last fight, a unanimous-decision win over Lani Daniels in July that drew more than 15,000 spectators. Shields long has outgrown her early Detroit venues, including MGM Grand Detroit and the Masonic Temple.<\/p>\n
She still likes to fight in her hometown of Flint, as she did in early in 2025, beating Danielle Perkins by unanimous decision at the Dort Financial Center. She remains proud of her roots, and her city remains proud of her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been such a light for this city, you\u2019ve been such a light for the boxing world,\u201d Morris Peterson, a former Michigan State basketball star, 2019 Michigan Sports Hall of Fame inductee and fellow Flint Northwestern graduate, said in a video message to Shields upon her induction.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re making us proud. … And the best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detroit used to be one of the centers of the boxing universe, as the adopted hometown of Joe Louis, and the home of Kronk Gym. The city is seeing a big-time renaissance on that front, with Kronk Gym reopening.<\/p>\n
Shields is thrilled to be a part of Detroit\u2019s boxing scene. Flint\u2019s still home, but Detroit\u2019s not far off.<\/p>\n
\u201cDetroit is like a big part of Michigan. It has one of the biggest populations. They always come out and support me, and it\u2019s in the middle of everything,\u201d Shields said, noting that fighting in Detroit makes it easy for boxing fans from Chicago or New York or even Atlanta to get there and be in her corner. \u201cDetroit is like a fun, exciting sports hub, and I\u2019m so excited to be fighting in Detroit, to represent Detroit, to represent Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, Flint and Detroit are two different places, but we\u2019re only 45 minutes apart. I\u2019m always happy to just keep bringing everybody together, and just keep representing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, oh, just keep winning. She\u2019s never lost. Just ask her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claressa Shields: “I can’t believe I’m a Hall-of-Famer, and I’m still an active champion.” (Katy Kildee\/The Detroit News\/TNS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-395891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}