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Claressa Shields could not speak clearly until she was nine years old. It would be another two years before she began to fight – in a gym, at least – but she has been a voice for women’s boxing ever since.
The undisputed middleweight champion of the world defends her WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC belts against No. 1 contender Maricela Cornejo.
It is not the fight that was scheduled for this weekend, a reminder that the murky world of doping has infiltrated the women’s field. Hanna Gabriels was Shields’ original opponent but failed a test for closetbol, a type of anabolic steroid.
Gabriels’ defence has been that her dog required a C-section to give birth, and the drug was a component of the cream she applied by hand to its stomach. By reply, Shields has questioned their original fight in June 2018, for which they did not have Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) testing in place.
The self-proclaimed “GWOAT” (the Greatest Woman of All Time) won that bout by unanimous decision, earning the vacant WBA and inaugural IBF middleweight titles in the process.
The Costa Rican will likely not get another shot at Shields even if she is able to prove her innocence, as the reigning champion has no interest in a rematch now, but is instead preoccupied by giving women’s boxing a platform in Detroit, close to her hometown of Flint, Michigan.
“She’s coming after me, so I’m fighting fire with fire,” says Cornejo. “There’s no backing down at all. It’s gonna take heart, endurance, everything and the kitchen sink. That’s the kind of fighter that Claressa is and I’m so ready for it.”
Shields’ stock is higher than ever, fresh from her 10-round victory by unanimous decision over Savannah Marshall. Before the first bell rang, it was the one moment in her career when doubts had begun to seep in from the outside.
Marshall seemed the one woman capable of dethroning her and despite the jibes swapped – Shields’ adaptation of the British middleweight’s surname to “Marshmellow” – it was a bloody and thrilling exchange. Shields, likewise, proved she was no “pillow fists”, Marshall’s moniker of choice.
Though Marshall is undeterred, even stepping up a division to super-middleweight against another undisputed champion in Franchon Crews-Dezurn, it was a decisive moment for Shields’ career.
Since then, her status has been further buoyed by a first professional defeat for Katie Taylor, the one woman in history who can dispute her argument to be the best pound-for-pound female fighter of all time.
What she and Taylor have in common is a feeling that there are limited options in their own weight class. To address that, Shields may have no option to drop to super-welterweight next and face Natasha Jonas, the unified world champion, or Terri Harper, who has the WBA belt. That, at present, is more likely than a Marshall rematch.
First comes Cornejo, who she is likely to outbox. The probability of stopping her is slim – it is six years since Shields won by TKO and she has only done so twice in her career, largely because women’s boxing only has two-minute rounds, compared to three in men’s boxing, offering her rivals a little respite.
Cornejo will not get much, though, as Shields rates her as a more dangerous adversary than Gabriels. “I’m facing a younger, taller and more savvy opponent in Maricela Cornejo,” she says. “I know that she’s always in shape. It’s gonna be a real throwdown in Motown.”
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Shields vs Cornejo
- Date: Saturday 3 June
- Venue: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, USA
- Fight time: Ring walks for the main event are expected around 4am (UK time)
- TV/live stream: DAZN, where subscriptions start from £9.99 a month. While it’s pay-per-view in the US and Canada UK fans will have it included in their monthly package
- Undercard highlights: There is a lot of hype around super-lightweight Joshua Pagan (5-0) as he takes on Ronnell Burnett and there are two immensely powerful super-welterweights in action as Ardreal Holmes fights Wendy Toussaint
- i predicts: Shields to win by unanimous decision
Full card:
- Claressa Shields vs Maricela Cornejo
- Ardreal Holmes vs Wendy Toussaint
- Da’Velle Smith vs Kahydlian Woods
- Joshua Pagan vs Ronnell Burnett
- Joseph Hicks Jr. vs Antonio Todd
- Gheith Karim vs Marlon Harrington
- Sarah Liegmann vs Carisse Brown
- Vernon Webber vs Fernando Simoes de Almeida
Any other business
- Anthony Joshua is set to take on Dillian Whyte in a rematch in August
- Featherweights Jonathan Lopez and Eduardo Baez are also in action tonight in an eight-rounder, while Erik Bazinyan takes on Jose de Jesus Macias at super-middleweight
- Gervonta Davis has been jailed for two months after violating the terms of a sentence for his hit-and-run charge which initially saw him avoid jail time.
- Shakur Stevenson has called on Devin Haney to grant Vasyl Lomachenko a rematch after his controversial defence of his undisputed lightweight status
- Joshua Buatsi is edging closer to a date to face Dan Azeez this summer
