Claressa Shields motivated by only thing missing in her career: knockouts
Editor’s note: Hanna Gabriels was removed as Claressa Shields’ opponent Thursday over issues related to drug testing. She was replaced by Maricela Cornejo.
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Claressa Shields couldn’t have accomplished more than she has.
Two Olympic gold medals. World titles in two divisions. A 13-0 professional record, 10-0 in championship fights. One of the two or three faces of women’s boxing. She is already one of the best to ever do it.
Only one thing is missing: knockouts. Only two of her victories have come by stoppage, the latter of which came in her fourth fight, in 2017.
That continues to bother Shields as she prepares to face Hanna Gabriels in a rematch on June 3 at Little Ceasars Arena in Detroit.
And it serves as motivation. Boxing Junkie asked her whether it’s difficult to get up for her fights given her dominance over everyone she has faced as a professional.
“No, it’s not,” she said. “If I were knocking these girls out in the first or second round, it would be hard to get up. I went 10 rounds and dominate and in my mind … why can’t I knock her out? So for me that’s what gets me up.”
The question is: What will get her knockouts?
The two-minute rounds in women’s boxing don’t help. Women don’t have as much time to wear down their opponents. And, obviously, some fighters simply have more pop in their punches than others.
Shields figures that the KOs will come if she does the right things.
“We gotta figure out how to knock these girls out,” she said. “I already dominate them. So the next level is to KO them. I feel like all these men get knockouts [against inferior opposition] early in their careers.
“I’ve had only tough challenges, girls with more experience, girls who are stronger than me. … I’ve finally caught up to them in experience. I’m more comfortable sitting down on my punches.
“We want quality over quantity, digging the body shot, the good head movement, countering, explosiveness. Now we’re getting into that. I had been winning with pure talent.”
She has a little extra motivation against Gabriels (21-2-1, 12 KOs).
The Costa Rican is the only opponent to have ever put Shields on the canvas, turning the trick in the first round of their 2018 fight. Shields ended up winning a wide decision, proving that she was the superior fighter in spite of the early mishap.
Still, Gabriels, now 40, evidently believes she has the power to turn the tables in the rematch. For her part, Shields put the knockdown behind her years ago.
“It made me upset that night that it happened,” he said. “That was it. I’m not thinking about a knockdown five years later like she is. What else did you do? You lost. That’s what everybody else has done inside the ring with me, lose.”
Indeed, if stopping fights early has been a problem for Shields, winning certainly hasn’t. She hasn’t lost a fight since Savannah Marshall outpointed her when she was a 17-year-old amateur in 2012.
And winning supersedes everything else. It would just be nice to have an early finish once in a while.
“Honestly, I just ‘want to’ keep winning, keep getting better, knock these girls out, keep getting faster and stronger, and just continue having a great career,” Shields said. “There’s always somebody who’s up and coming, who wants a shot at world titles.
“I just want to stay ready for them and just fight the best. That’s all I can do right now.”
