Claressa Shields, U.S. boxing's lone two-time Olympic gold medalist, started her professional career on the right foot with a dominant victory against Franchon Crews.
On the Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward undercard, Shields won via unanimous decision in a four-round super middleweight bout against Crews. The fight was one of the special attractions in the special "freeview" broadcast that showed two hours of boxing before the main pay-per-view card began.
This isn't the first time these two women have fought in the ring. In a previous meeting, Shields defeated Crews, then a top-ranked Olympic hopeful, in 2012 during the first U.S. team trials for women's boxing.
Shields first competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics as the youngest American boxer and captured Olympic gold. She won the 2012 Olympic middleweight title by defeating Russian boxer Nadezda Torlopova and the 2016 gold medal by defeating Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn. She is the most decorated female amateur in American history, having also been a four-time U.S. national champion, two-time world amateur champion, 2015 Pan American Games gold medalist, two-time AIBA female boxer of the year and the recipient of the Val Barker award for most outstanding female fighter at the Rio Games.
Fightful has a live viewing party for the Kovalev vs. Ward fight for the unified light heavyweight championship on this link.
