(MAR 4) Following victory over Ivana Habazin of Croatia, Claressa Shields who calls herself the great woman of all time (there is no such title for one female boxer in the sport...) and in achieving victory, she became the fastest man or woman to achieve world belts in three different divisions, to add to the two gold medals she won at the 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) Olympics. Against Habazin, Shields had trained down to the 154-pound division, having already dominated the 160- and 168-pound championships and victory claimed the vacant WBC and WBO super welterweight titles, adding them to her vacated IBF and WBA titles. In 2018, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Kosei Tanaka achieved three titles in different divisions in 12 fights. Shields now stands with all those titles with a record of 10-0, 2 KOs.

The fight that took place on 10th January in Atlantic City was a long time in waiting though, with the fight being postponed twice. The original fight was scheduled for 17th August, but Shields pulled out due to injury, although rumors had it that Shields was actually over the weight limit set for the division. Unsurprisingly, most the accusations came from the Habazin camp and this only ensured a fiery weigh-in when it came about on 4th October. Unfortunately, there were some unsavory incidents at the weigh-in which resulted in Habazin’s trainer, James Ali Bashir being knocked out after being caught blind by an individual who immediately fled the scene. The man turned out to be Shields’ brother, Artis Mack. Thankfully, the fight on 10th January went ahead without any hitches or surprises and history was made on this night.

The fight itself was a one-sided battle, with everything bar the knockout, although Shields did knock Habazin down in the sixth round. By the end, the result was completely unanimous, decided by Judges Debra Barnes (100-90), Lynne Carter (99-89) and Robin Taylor (100-89) and after months of waiting, Shields became the best. But what’s next for The Greatest? The one issue with being extremely dominant and feared is that there are few that want to step into the ring. This might pose just a slight problem for “T-Rex”, as she is nicknamed, but we ponder a few opponents that Shields could next step into the ring with…..or the Octagon.

Elin Cederroos

In her post-match interview, Shields called out Elin Cederroos (8-0, 4 KOs), the Swedish unified Super-Middleweight Champion. Cederroos unified the belts on the same night of Shields’ record-breaking feat, defeating Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa to win the vacant WBA belt while also retaining her IBF title and in doing so, dealing a huge blow to Napoleon-Espinosa’s hopes of facing Shields herself. Cederroos herself also won by unanimous decision, although the scores were closer than with Shields vs Habazin and victory over Napoleon-Espinosa is only made more impressive by the fact the former footballer didn’t start boxing until she was 28. Expect her to play a more prominent role in women’s boxing in the future. Could she prove a worthy adversary for Shields? In her words, “I just want to go home and practice, I want more experience. I just did like fourteen amateur fights.”

Amanda Nunes

Could we see Claressa Shields in the UFC Octagon? It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a cross-disciplinary fight. However, Shields stepping into the Octagon would be the reverse of Conor McGregor stepping into the boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather and would certainly be more challenging. Mixed Martial Arts requires a combination of skills, including multiple different kicks and grapples but it is rumored that Shields wants to take this challenge on, with a couple of firms now pricing up her chances of crossing over disciplines.
She has become the face of women’s boxing and also possesses a burning desire for more. UFC is also seen as a more lucrative option to boxing but it is hard to envisage Shields leaving boxing, if only for a brief period, when she has the world’s attention on the sport she loves. But as we saw with McGregor vs Mayweather, it does make for great entertainment and we certainly cannot rule out seeing Shields in an Octagon by the end of 2020 even.

Alejandra Jimenez

Another potential contender could have been former or current Super-Middleweight Champion Alejandra Jimenez of Mexico. A day after Shields was breaking records in Atlantic City, Jimenez was securing a split-decision victory over Franchon Crews-Dezurn in San Antonio, Texas, which made her the new WBC and WBO Super-Middleweight Champion. And in her post-match interview, Jimenez called out Shields for her next bout. However, the World Boxing Council (WBC) suspended Jimenez’s titles after she tested positive for an “A” sample in her pre-fight doping test. Jimenez requested that the “B” sample be opened to try and clear her name but upon opening this on 19th February, this came out to be positive too.   The WBC have maintained the suspension while further action is decided upon, effectively ruling Jimenez out of any fight with Shields.