The undefeated newly crowned undisputed women’s middleweight world champion Claressa “T-Rex” Shields is so confident in her boxing abilities that she told TMZ sports she could hang with and beat other male boxing champions.
The Michigan native who owns two Olympic gold medals and just beat Germany’s Christina Hammer in a one-sided domination to become the undisputed unified champion in her division winning all the titles, thinks her skills are just as good if not better than most male boxers.
Shields, 24, proudly calls herself the “GWOAT” which stands for Greatest Woman Of All Time.
She wants to take that a step further and doesn’t just want to be called the best female fighter pound-for-pound but the best fighter regardless of sex/gender and would be willing to back it up in the ring against other professional male boxers.
Not shy to throw out names, Shields suggested that she could beat undefeated 147-pound WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman.
She acknowledged the strength advantage men will have over her but suggested that boxing is the sweet science it isn’t all about power, and her boxing skills will help her in the ring.
She credits her many years sparring with male boxers, even knocking some down and giving them bloody noses in sparring sessions.
She even said she would be competitive and give former middleweight kingpin and knockout artist Gennady “GGG” Golovkin a run for his money.
“Power for power isn’t a question because what is boxing? Boxing is the sweet science. It’s not about strength because people were saying Christina Hammer was stronger than me. They were saying all these girls were stronger than me, but did you not see the head movement that I had during the fight? See the defense? The offense? The traps I set?” said Shields.
“If I were to get in there with a man, I would do a lot more of that, and I do have some power. I’m not gonna say that I’m stronger than them, but if I set up the right shots with the right timing.”
But realistically Shields main focus now is for a super fight with the undisputed women’s welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus who many still consider the best female fighter pound-for-pound.
She would like to fight the 37-year-old Braekhus at 154-pounds on Pay-Per-View to settle the argument of who really is pound-for-pound queen of boxing.
