{"id":208633,"date":"2025-10-18T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208633\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:39:09","slug":"claressa-shields-questions-laila-alis-boxing-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208633\/","title":{"rendered":"Claressa Shields Questions Laila Ali\u2019s Boxing Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boxing is a sport which focuses on an individual\u2019s career accomplishments. During a guest appearance on the \u2018Million Dollaz Worth of Game\u2019<\/a> podcast, the women\u2019s undisputed heavyweight world champion Claressa Shields took a jab at Laila Ali\u2019s boxing legacy.<\/p>\n

Shields has already challenged Ali to a boxing match as the two have been involved in a lengthy public feud. During her appearance on Million Dollaz Worth of Game, Shields stated her opinion regarding Laila Ali not being the best boxer of her era.<\/p>\n

Shields went on to name the person she believes is the best women\u2019s boxer of that particular era. Shields cast doubt about Ali\u2019s position, but she stands firm when stating she\u2019s the best boxer of her time period.<\/p>\n

Ali and Shields are currently at odds, but there was a time when they shared a bond. After Claressa Shields won her first Olympic gold medal back in 2012, she reached out to Ali, and Ali shared some solid career advice.<\/p>\n

Ali told Shields that the 168-pound weight class she fights in has no competition there, and she wouldn\u2019t make much money. Ali recommended that once Shields turns pro, she should go down in weight and compete in one of the lower weight classes.<\/p>\n

After Shields turned pro, she kept in contact with Ali. The relationship between Shields and Ali took a drastic turn for the worse when Ali made a stop at a New York radio station to promote her cookbook.<\/p>\n

During her promotional stop as a guest on \u2018The Breakfast Club,\u2019 Ali was asked if she would ever make a return to boxing, and she responded by saying she didn\u2019t see anybody there who inspires her to come back.<\/p>\n

Claressa Shields took offense to Ali\u2019s statement as she proceeded to call out Ali on YouTube and social media. Rumors of a potential boxing match began to circulate, but nothing concrete has materialized as of yet.<\/p>\n

Back in October 1999, Laila Ali made her pro debut by stopping April Fowler in the first round. Through the years, Ali won the IBA, WIBA, and WIBF belts. In June 2005, Ali stopped Erin Toughill in the 3rd round and won the inaugural WBC female super-middleweight world title.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Laila Ali would step inside the squared circle one final time, as she stopped Gwendolyn O\u2019Neil in the first round. After retiring from pro boxing, Laila Ali (24-0, 21 KOs) was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021.<\/p>\n

Now the 47-year-old Laila Ali is being urged to sign on to participate in what would be the biggest women\u2019s boxing match of the year. Claressa Shields has challenged, trolled, and, during her recent podcast appearance, insulted Ali.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to take the high road like Terence Crawford and say she was the best in her era,\u201d Shields said. \u201cActually, I\u2019m not going to lie, Ann Wolfe was the best in her era, and I\u2019m the best in this era. Laila Ali is just Muhammad Ali\u2019s daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shields went on to say that if they had fought, she believes Ann Wolfe would have knocked Laila Ali out. Ann Wolfe (24-1, 16 KOs) is known for delivering the most devastating one-punch knockout in women\u2019s boxing history, when she knocked out 6 foot 6 inch Vonda Ward in the first round.<\/p>\n

When she spoke about Ann Wolfe, Laila Ali said plans were in place to fight Wolfe, but Wolfe pulled out because she wasn\u2019t offered enough money. Ali missed her opportunity to fight Wolfe, but the question is, will she accept big money to fight the three-division undisputed world champion Claressa Shields?<\/p>\n

During her heyday, Laila Ali was good at controlling the distance with a strong, accurate jab. The jab, the one-two, her straight right hand, well-placed body shots, and her combination punches were some of the weapons that made Ali dangerous.<\/p>\n

Claressa Shields is a pure boxing technician who has all the tools. She is a very athletic boxer who has the ring intelligence, hand speed, footwork, excellent punch placement, and when she\u2019s ready to get aggressive, she\u2019s able to press forward and hit her opponent with a multitude of sharp combinations.<\/p>\n

As a fantasy fight, this is an awesome matchup, but from a reality point of view, this fight probably won\u2019t happen. Ali is a true fighting champion, but for a person to be retired for 18 years and then come back and be competitive against a boxer of the caliber of Claressa Shields is a bit ambitious and unrealistic.<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Claressa Shields Takes A Jab At Laila Ali\u2019s Legacy<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 10\/17\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxing is a sport which focuses on an individual\u2019s career accomplishments. During a guest appearance on the \u2018Million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-208633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}