On the final HBO Boxing card, Claressa Shields opened up with another dominant performance.
Shields scored a shutout unanimous decision win over Femke Hermans (100-90, 100-90, 100-90) to defend her unified WBA, WBC and IBF women's middleweight titles.
It was an easy night for Shields as she dominated Hermans throughout all 10 rounds. Shields spent most of the fight throwing and landing power punches and Hermans mainly worked to survive all 10 rounds. As far as total punches landed are concerned, Shields outlanded Hermans 119 to 29. Shields also threw 104 power punches out of 272 (38 percent) and Hermans only connected on 25 of her 127 power shots (20 percent).
.@Claressashields wobbles Hermans with a heavy left hook in the final round. #ShieldsHermans pic.twitter.com/cVVVcyhAzT
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) December 9, 2018
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was fighting in her second fight for the second month. Shields last fought in November on a Matchroom Boxing USA card on DAZN when she defeated Hannah Rankin to add the WBC middleweight title to her collection of world titles at 160 pounds. Shields will now look to secure a fight against WBO champion Christina Hammer in 2019 to crown an undisputed women's middleweight champion.
In the co-main event of the telecast, super flyweight title contender Juan Francisco Estrada defeated Victor Mendez after seven rounds in order to keep his momentum intact as he awaits a rematch against WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
Estrada vs. Mendez was added to the card after Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, who was supposed to fight Pedro Guevara on the card, went down with a knee injury in training camp. Estrada has now won his last two fights, both of which took place on HBO.
