Claressa Shields is not only a two-time Olympic gold medalist but also a two-division world champion.
Shields defeated unified junior middleweight champion Hanna Gabriels by unanimous decision (97-92, 97-92, 98-91) to win the vacant unified IBF and WBA middleweight titles in Shields' sixth fight. With those titles in hand, Shields now two world titles at both middleweight and super middleweight where she is the unified IBF and WBC champion.
The fight headlined a Showtime-televised card that also featured Christina Hammer's WBO and WBC middleweight title defense against Tori Nelson.
The fight started off with something never seen before in Shields' career: Shields getting knocked down in a fight. Gabriels landed a right uppercut in the first round that dropped Shields, but Shields was able to bounce back and recover well. Shields dominated the rest of the fight, virtually winning every other round in the fight, which took place in Detroit, Michigan.
The telecast served to build up to a potential women's superfight between Shields and Hammer and with both women holding all four world titles, a fight between the two would crown an undisputed women's middleweight champion. After Shields' fight, Hammer entered the ring to get to Shields and the two had to be separated as a scuffle ensued. Shields said after the fight she is tired of Hammer trash talking her and wants to have a fight against her.
"I'm just tired of Hammer disrespecting me all the time. She comes into the ring after all my fights, talks trash, and then she goes in there and looks like sh*t against Nelson. I'm sick of it. But I let her know I'm more than ready for a fight against her. She wanted me to lose tonight, but I wanted her to win because I want to fight her. We heave to unify now," Shields said.
After winning her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Shields turned pro that November. In her fourth professional fight, Shields scored a fifth-round TKO win over Nikki Adler to win the IBF and WBC titles. After defeating Nelson in her first title defense back in January, Shields dropped down in weight to win two more world titles and hopefully set up a superfight against Hammer in a fight between two of boxing's best pound-for-pound women's fighters.
