Olympic trials to £6m deal - Shields' full-circle moment

Six months before the 2012 Olympics, American Claressa Shields took her first step on the path to greatness.

Aged only 16, Shields beat national champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn, who was eight years her senior, at the US Olympic trials.

Shields would go on to win gold at the Games in London and earn a further two victories over Crews-Dezurn in the amateur ranks.

A fourth successive win followed when they met on their professional debuts in 2016 – and the pair are set to reignite their rivalry on Saturday when Shields defends her undisputed heavyweight status.

“Me and Franchon have always said that for some reason we are always intertwined in each other’s lives,” Shields told BBC Sport.

“If you take it back to when I was 16, she was ranked number one in the country and I was ranked number seven and the people who were ranked lower had to pull out a ball and it would tell you who we were fighting against – I pulled out number one.

“Now we meet again on the first fight of my major deal.”

The major multi-fight deal that Shields speaks of was signed with Wynn Records and Salita Promotions in November.

It is worth a staggering $8m (£6.1m) and also came with an additional $3m (£2.2m) signing-on bonus.

Those figures are unheard of in women’s boxing but Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, five-weight world champion and three-weight undisputed champion, is no stranger to raising the bar.

“I have never heard of a man getting that kind of signing bonus. I’ve heard of men getting a $1m (£739,000) signing bonus but never $3m,” Shields said.

“I would love to ask ChatGPT, ‘Has a man ever got a $3m signing bonus for a boxing contract?’

“My contract now is big overall and I’m getting back paid. When I came out of the Olympics with two gold medals, I should have got a $1m signing bonus for whoever I went with but that didn’t happen.

“Now it’s years later but I’m getting it all back. I’ve been able to make millions over the past few years.”

Regular knockouts motivating history-maker

Claressa Shields first became a world champion at super-middleweight in 2017 [Getty Images]

Shields is the self-proclaimed Greatest Woman of All Time (GWOAT) and has a catalogue of evidence to back that claim up.

The 30-year-old won her first world title in just her fourth professional bout – becoming a unified super-middleweight champion.

That sparked a run of 14 successive world title fights and Shields is yet to lose in 17 contests as a professional.

Her last defeat came as an amateur in 2012 against Briton Savannah Marshall – a defeat she atoned for in 2022.

Despite achieving more than most in a full career, Shields does not lack the motivation to reach new highs.

“It’s seeing how great I can be as a fighter,” Shields said.

“I want to get my skillset and body to the position where I can go the extra mile and get the knockout after I’ve dominated these girls for five or six rounds.

“That’s what pushes me.

“It’s all about how great can I be. When it’s all over, you don’t get your youth back.”

Price or Mayer? Shields welcomes all challenges

After experimenting with mixed martial arts twice – winning two and losing one – Shields has made clear her intention to stick to pugilism for the rest of her career.

Shields turns 31 next month and intends to continue boxing until she is 38, leaving the door open for plenty of tests.

Unified welterweight champion Lauren Price and Mikaela Mayer, who holds the WBO welterweight title and is also a unified champion at light-middleweight, have both called out Shields in recent times.

Wales’ Price has urged Shields to come down from heavyweight, but that would mean the American dropping five divisions.

“If Mikaela and Lauren want to prove their greatness – and I’m willing to give them that chance – then it’s 163lb and 165lb. I don’t have to prove anything,” Shields said.

“Lauren has no excuse for 165lb (75kg) because we both fought at 75kg for our Olympic gold medals. Let’s not make excuses with the weight classes.”

Price won Olympic gold at middleweight in 2020 but has spent her entire professional career at welterweight and defends her world titles against Stephanie Pineiro Aquino in April on BBC Two.

Mayer is a three-division world champion and has fought as high as light-middleweight.

“I don’t know why these girls think I have to go down two or three weight classes when Terence Crawford went up three weight classes to fight Canelo [Alvarez],” Shields said.

“The thing I find so crazy about this is when I was at 154lb, 160lb and 168lb – no-one would fight me. Now I’m at 175lb all these girls are calling me out to fight.

“Where were you all when I was undisputed at 160lb twice? Where were you at when I was at 154lb? I couldn’t get a fight. I had to beg girls to fight.”