Claressa Shields enhanced her already fine reputation when on Saturday at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena she defeated Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to dethrone her as the WBC heavyweight title and to win the vacant light-heavyweight title of the WBO.
In the build-up to her first fight at 175lbs she discussed her career, that of her friend Shakur Stevenson, and the wider picture of women’s boxing, in an extensive Q&A.*
BoxingScene: You’re preparing to fight for the first time at 175lbs. How are you finding the additional weight?
It’s OK. I don’t have to lose a whole bunch of weight for this fight. I keep eating everything – I [still] force myself to eat healthy – and I’m pretty lean, but I have added on some muscle, and you’re gonna see that muscle during the weigh-in and during the fight. You’ll be able to see my punches – it will linger on my opponent. I’ve added the needed muscle in the places I need it; sparring went completely well, and I’m hitting a lot harder and getting respect from my sparring partners, who are 180lbs; 190lbs. The whole thing of me not being able to punch is a myth – I could punch really hard, and now I’m putting on the right muscle and eating the right food I’m gonna be very strong.
I’m not sluggish at all. If I’ve been sluggish it’s because I’ve been tired from working so God damn hard. My punches are coming off straight and strong; when I land punches, it’s effective punches. I can see them [sparring partners] getting on the back foot. That’s the difference. In fights I’ve hit girls and they’ve jumped on their wheels but now I’m able to hit them, cut off the ring, and hit them with other hard punches. I can tell that there’s power and there’s weight behind my punches, and that’s getting the respect of a lot of the people I’ve been working with.
I have a lot more energy. I’m in Atlanta, and it’s so hot – sometimes the heat is a bit much to deal with. But I’ve been doing a lot of recovery; I’m sweating a lot, I’m working hard, and I do have a lot of energy. The gym’s 80, 90 degrees. Sparring was good – I got everything out of it that I wanted to get out of it. I know [on one occasion] why I wasn’t as sharp as I wanted to be so I made sure that I fix those things so when I got into the fight I’m sharp; strong; fast.
I’m eating a little bit more. But I can never get tired of seeing food. I’ve had to lose, sometimes, 30 and 40lbs to make 160lbs, so I’m never going to get tired of seeing food. Here in Atlanta it’s so much good food; soul food. I’ve been eating a lot of pho; a lot of mediterranean food. I’ve still been eating my grilled chicken; my grilled fish; rice. I could eat more rice than what I was able to eat when I was in camp; I was able to eat bread this camp. I can maybe double my portions. But I haven’t just indulged like the body builders have. I’m not overeating, because I’d have a fat belly, and I wanna have a six pack at 175lbs.
BS: How else has not needing to make the middleweight limit changed your preparations?
I can concentrate on the actual game plan for the fight, and not running so much. Running – you’re having to lose 30lbs, sometimes you gotta run five times a week, four times a week, and that can be stressful on your body, because you can’t put boxing first. You gotta put losing the weight first. Which is the running; the strength and conditioning; help you lose the weight. I’m still running, but I don’t have to run as much. Usually, when I’m camp, I’m running specifically to lose weight [and this time it’s for my conditioning].
BS: How different a nature of fighter are you going to be?
You’re gonna see me be more calmer, because I have the energy to do so, and I have the punching power to do so. It won’t be as many punches, but the punches will count, and the punches will be effective. That’s what you will see. You will see that if she wants to force me to fight inside the pocket; she wanna come and brawl, you’re gonna see that I’m gonna win that. I’m gonna win the mid-range exchange; I’m gonna win the long-range exchange, and you’re gonna see who’s the true heavyweight in the fight; who has true punching power. I’m hoping she’s prepared for this fight, and comes with the confidence that she came to the press conference with – getting in my face and saying I’m too little. I hope she has that same energy when she gets inside the ring, because I’m gonna punch her lights out.
BS: To what extent does fighting Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse at 175lbs represent your toughest fight?
She’s my biggest opponent, I can say that, but as far as my toughest fight, I have fought against some really great fighters early on in my career. Franchon Crews; Hanna Gabriels; Savannah Marshall; the likes of those girls have been around for years and fought all over the country.
I have been in with the likes of those girls, so I think Vanessa has some attributes that can give me some problems for sure, but I have just fought against the best already and I’ve beaten the best – that’s why I’m here. I know Vanessa isn’t coming to lay down and it’s going to be hard breaking her will come July 27th, but I’m gonna do everything in my power to do so.
We were supposed to fight against Lani Daniels – that was the first person – but then Lani got sick, or something, or injured. So, we went next best and next best was Vanessa, but then it was weird ‘cause when we signed to fight with Vanessa, Lani Daniels started going online saying I ducked her, but she was trying to get the fight with Vanessa. So, I don’t think she was truly injured, she just signed the papers to fight me and then decided, “I think I bit off a bit more than I can chew,” type of deal, and tried to sign a deal to fight with Vanessa – but Vanessa signed a deal to fight with me.
BS: It’s not uncommon for smaller, more skillful fighters to be considered the underdog. Are you at all surprised the same doesn’t apply to you?
I think the world has caught on to that, “Claressa Shields can do whatever she can put her mind to.” Fighting at heavyweight is a challenge, but it’s no different to all the other challenges. Honestly, what fights have been like, “Clarissa gonna lose this fight?” I really haven’t experienced that; I’m the favorite in every fight. Maybe when everybody was convinced that Savannah [Marshall] was just this knockout puncher and she knocks everyone out, maybe that fight. People were saying that I wasn’t gonna win, but I never thought that.
I never thought that no female that I been matched against was gonna beat me in a fight. So I think I’ll give Vanessa that same respect of thinking that, “You’re a heavyweight champion and you’ve fought as big as 213lbs or 231lbs.” But I am what I am, and that’s the greatest woman of all time – the greatest woman in any weight class.
I’m pound-for-pound No. 1. I don’t think none of these girls come close to me when it comes to skills. If she was at 160 with the skills that she possesses, I would wash her like I did with everyone else. Her fighting at heavyweight kind of plays to her favour, but she is bigger; she is stronger; she has been fighting girls who are at 231 and 210. Now she’s fighting against a girl who’s coming up, so she may feel like she has some strength advantages, which she might do, but far as skill-wise, I have never questioned if any of these girls are on my level skill-wise. Because we can see that they’re clearly not, but she may have some things that I have to worry about when fighting. That’s her weight; her punching power, and when you got those big old legs, you can take a bit more. In her fights, she fighting against them big girls; she getting punched in the face, but she ain’t backing down. So it’s my job to make her back down and make her quit.
It’s a fight, and she gonna use her attributes to win the fight. She gonna try bully me with her size and put her weight on me and maybe try to tire me out, try to punch me hard and stuff like that. That’s what she’s gonna try and do. She can’t try to outbox me cause she can’t do that – she doesn’t possess those skills. So I know she’s gonna come and really try to tire me out; put her weight on me; punch me hard and hopefully she wants to land a shot that can change that trajectory of the fight. My job is to not allow that, but to let her know that I know what her game plan is, and I have a game plan for that.
I think they’ll be saying, “Damn, I wouldn’t wanna get hit by Clarissa Shields.” I think they’ll be saying that they cracked a couple jokes about pillow fists, but they wouldn’t want to get hit with that pillow. I think that they’ll say that pillow has bricks in it. I think after the fight it’s going to show people that heavyweight women’s boxing can be very entertaining and it depends on who’s there. I think any weight that I am at is very entertaining, it’s a very good fight, you’re going to see skills, you’re going to see power, and you’re going to see a fight. I don’t think that this fight sees the final bell, you’re talking about round 10 – I don’t think that it sees that. I’m going out there to seek and destroy and if Vanessa don’t knock me out, I’m gonna knock her ass out.
BS: You’ve been compared to the great Roy Jones Jr…
I’m jumping up from middleweight to heavyweight – that’s the comparison [with Roy Jones Jr]. Women heavyweights aren’t 200lbs; they’re 190; 180; 177, so that’s the comparison there, and the other comparison is Roy Jones was the best of his time, and the comparison on my side is I’m the best right now of my time. I’m doing the exact same thing, so I plan on being victorious and showing I can fight at any weight class. I really wish that there was some way that my body could make 140 and 147 because I would love to fight against the likes of Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. I love those girls – I’m saying it from a competitor’s standpoint – I would love to match my skills against theirs and prove I’m the best against them in a weight class that’s fair for us. I think if I was to go down to 147 or 140, it wouldn’t be fair because I would be down there killing myself to get down there but I would still compete at a high level against those girls and win. But they can’t come up to 154 and 160 because their body won’t allow – but to me they’re super fights. If there was a way I could maybe cut off a leg and fight one of them…
BS: The General Entertainment Authority is about to stage Israil Madrimov-Terence Crawford. Would you like to see them invest in women’s boxing?
I’m the first woman to fight in Saudi Arabia, in front of Turki Alalshikh and everything. I would love him to put some money into women’s boxing and show it can be just as lucrative as the men’s, but I think that it’s all about timing. He has to pick the right woman and the right woman is myself of course, but the right woman with the right opponent and the right engine behind these fights. Whenever the time comes – but I think what he’s doing for boxing is pretty great and that he shouldn’t exclude the women.
BS: How do you reflect on the recent criticism of your friend Shakur Stevenson’s performance in victory over Artem Harutyunyan?
He’s a threat. That’s why he get the criticism. He’s a threat to [Gervonta] “Tank” Davis. Everybody wants Tank Davis to just be the top dog, which, hey – he’s a great fighter. I really don’t take nothing away from him. He’s a good fighter – he know how to finish a job; he smell blood, he goes for it. He’s good. But how you gonna knock out somebody you can’t hit?
How you gonna knock out somebody who’s just as athletic as you, and just as experienced? Shakur’s the biggest threat to Tank, and he makes all the Tank fans come at Shakur and criticize him and try to say mean stuff to him, just to try to make Tank be bigger. But the only way that we’re ever gonna know who’s the best out of Tank and Shakur is if they fight. Tank is going to need more than just punching power to knock out Shakur – to beat Shakur. But Shakur gonna have 100 different game plans on how he can beat Tank. That’s why the criticism comes – because he’s a threat to Tank Davis. Other than that, they have no other reason to hate on Shakur like that.
He is [authentic]. The criticism only bothers him when he can’t respond. Him responding has been a sense of release for him. People telling celebrities to be quiet and just ignore it is why some celebrities crash out. Shakur responding and saying what he needs to say and getting it off his chest is actually good for him, so that makes him care. But if he has to keep up this image and not respond and have to be nice to people that’s being mean to him, that can be triggering.
It’s triggering for me. “Why do you respond to people?” Because it makes me feel better when I respond, instead of letting people say all these mean things about me and I don’t say nothing back. Shakur [is] like that. You come at him; he gonna come at you. I have been shocked to see some people that has actually criticized Shakur, because he does have a better boxing career than a lot of people.
I just can’t believe – I seen Shakur get into it with Andre Berto, who I love to death. I see him get into it with Marcus Browne, my Olympic brother from 2012. Ishe Smith. A lot of people Shakur has got into it with online, I’m actually cool with them people. I just stay out with it because they say mean stuff to him and he just responds – and I think that’s appropriate. It’s appropriate.
Only the greats get criticized like that. People try to find a way to break our will and make us fight a way we don’t wanna fight, or be something we don’t wanna be. The route that Shakur is on right now is beautiful. Everybody like, ‘If he fight against Tank, he’ll just move around the ring,’ but it’s boxing. Anybody who gets in the ring with Shakur, it’s their job to cut off the ring; to have a game plan to beat him. It’s not his job to go in there and get punched in the face. His job is to box, and Shakur has done a great job of that and he’s done really, really excellent blocking out so much of the noise that has come his way, and all of the criticism.
He’s been criticized like Floyd [Mayweather] was; how I was criticized. “She can’t box, she’s just strong.” So I’d go out there and outbox all these girls, and then it’s, “Oh, she just knows how to box, she don’t have no power.” So you really can’t make the fans happy. You just have to go out there and do what you do best to build yourself up as a fighter. Shakur’s gonna fix his weaknesses and just get better. But as far as him being a boxer, he’s a great boxer.
If I have to say anything about his fight – I talked to him about it, and I said, “Bro, you did everything great, except you had the dude gone and you stopped punching. Why you didn’t finish him?” And he gave me his feedback – “I know I had him” – but that’s something he gotta work on. But that was my only thing. I wish he woulda stepped on the gas at that moment. But he was inside the ring and he didn’t smell enough blood to go for it, but he definitely was there for me on the outside looking in, and that was my only criticism of him. “Hey bro – you shoulda punched more during that round to get the stoppage, to make him quit, because you definitely had him.”
Other than that, his defense was on point; his offense was on point; he proved all the naysayers wrong. Everybody that said, “Shakur don’t step to nobody – all he do is move.” Shakur stood there in the pocket; he made that dude get on his wheels. I really have no complaints. I’m just proud of him, because with everything that’s happening to him in his career, he got so many reasons to crash out and just go crazy, posting and saying stuff – kinda like Ryan [Garcia] did. But you don’t see Shakur crashing out. You see him really checking people and letting them know, “Hey man, you can’t just have an opinion about me and get mad when I have an opinion about you; we all got opinions.” Anybody saying that Shakur is a trash boxer is 100 percent wrong.
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