Claressa Shields Fantasyland
By William Trillo
It was late Saturday evening as I was driving down the 5 freeway when I got the little alert on my phone telling me I just received an email. The email turned out to be a press release sent out after Claressa Shields (9-0, 2 KOs) defeated Christina Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision to unify the women’s middleweight titles.
In her post fight quote Shields stated, “I am the greatest woman of all time.”
That was a pretty bold statement but Claressa just won a World title on national TV so I figured she was still high on the Adrenaline of the moment. My knee jerk reaction was to call her out for that statement but I gave her a pass and let her lofty self assessment slide.
I would have left well enough alone but Shields let fly with some pretty absurd statements this week that need to be addressed.
According to Shields, and I quote, “I think I can beat up Keith Thurman … I really do.” Welterweight Champ Thurman’s record is 29-0-1 with 22 via KO.
Claressa then went on to say, “…I could give GGG a run for his money.” Golovkin’s record is 38-1-1 with 34 KO’s.
Did Shields pass the drug test after her fight this weekend? Girl might be on some mighty strong hallucinogens. Either that or she has a huge misconception of how talented she actually is.
Claressa…please!
I realize that in this day and age of the “Me Too” movement you want to be given your just due. But seriously, this is not a game of one on one basketball we are talking about here. You just called out two of the hardest hitters in men’s professional prize fighting. The idea is ludicrous at best.
One of my esteemed colleagues read your statement and sent me this text message: “What the ????. Has she lost her mind? She is so full of herself!”
Enough said. Your statement has made you the laughing stock of boxing.
And although I was going to reserve my comments on your claim to being the best woman fighter of all time, I can’t help but give you my thoughts now.
Frankly speaking Claressa, you would be hard pressed to crack the Top Ten women of all time. Christy Martin, Lucia Rijker, Laila Ali, Anne Wolf, Holly Holm and yes even Mia St. John would beat you in their prime.
You might be the best in women’s boxing right now but the talent pool is about as deep as the kiddie pool in my neighbor’s backyard and it is half empty. You might wanna rethink that best of all time statement.
You are 9-0 with a mere 2 KO’s. Now is not the time to be staking your claim as best of the best.
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