Claressa Shields reigned supreme as the undisputed heavyweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Franchon Crews-Dezum at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
Shields and her rival wasted no time in throwing heavy leather at one another. They exchanged wild punches in the opening moments of the bout.
Crews-Dezurn did a nice job of turning the bout into a slugfest. The two exchanged quite a few exchanges in the second frame that took Shields out of her element and left others begging her to get back to her jab.
Shields took her game up a notch as the fight progressed to the middle rounds. Her cleaner boxing started to shine through and she found Crews-Dezurn’s chin on multiple occasions.
Shakur Stevenson offered a shoutout as Shields had taken over the fight completely by the sixth round.
Shields continued to dominate without much drop in output. The champion kept pouring on the punishment, but she wasn’t able to get the finish.
This is just the latest in a long line of dominant performances from the two-time Olympic Gold medalist. Moving up to the heavyweight division after dominating the middleweight class has turned out to be a great move for her.
The victory also provides a full-circle moment for a rivalry that started her boxing career. Shields and Crews-Dezurn made their professional debuts against one another in 2016 with the GWOAT winning a four-round unanimous decision victory.
It’s safe to say the stage was much bigger this time. Shields has now become one of the biggest stars in women’s boxing. Her perfect 18-0 record has had few moments of doubt.
The biggest problem for Shields at this point is finding compelling fights. Her dominance is part of the draw, but finding opponents who can actually push her or make intriguing fights is a challenge.
She has some ideas in mind.
Both Lauren Price and Mikaela Mayer were on the receiving end of callouts from Shields ahead of the fight.
“If Mikaela and Lauren want to prove their greatness—and I’m willing to give them that chance—then it’s 163lb and 165lb. I don’t have to prove anything,” Shields said, per Bobbie Jackson of BBC Sport.
Mayer currently holds belts at welterweight (147 pounds) and junior middleweight (154). Price is the IBF, WBA and WBC welterweight titleholder. So either of them jumping up to 163 or 165 would be a considerable jump.
But it could be big business as both are marketable world champions.
Specific prize money for the bout hasn’t been released, but this was the first fight in Shields’ $8 million, multi-fight contract with Salita Promotions and Wynn Records.
