Claressa Shields is targeting a rematch with Costa Rica’s Hanna Gabriels after becoming the first women’s undisputed heavyweight champion in victory over Danielle Perkins.
Via scores of 97-92, 99-90 and 100-89 she also became the first fighter, male or female, to earn the status of undisputed champion in three divisions, as she also previously has at junior middleweight and middleweight.
At Dort Financial Center in her home city of Flint, Michigan, she dropped the 42-year-old Perkins in the 10th and final round, before saying on the subject of Gabriels, also 42 and who she defeated at middleweight in 2018: “It ain’t enough. That’s how I think. I think that I didn’t get my flowers for so many years so even though I’m getting them now, it’s like that’s not enough. I deserve more than that.
“I’m fighting for a million dollars. I’m supposed to be getting paid five. This ain’t it. So, for me, that’s where the fire comes from [to want to continue achieving].”
Britain’s Savannah Marshall has regularly spoken of seeking a rematch with Shields, having also lost to her at middleweight, in 2022. To that end, promoters Boxxer are attempting to add her to the undercard of Natasha Jonas-Lauren Price on March 7 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, so that a future rematch can be built.
“I actually think I’m going to have to have surgery on my left arm,” the 29-year-old Shields continued. “I tore my labrum last week, so the fight almost didn’t happen.
“I didn’t want to let Flint down, but I really couldn’t use my jab the way that I wanted to. I iced it, I did therapy and now I think I’m going to have a shoulder surgery.
“Danielle was strong, she was definitely a problem but my experience and my skills got me over it. I’ve been in plenty of street fights with bigger people and I had to use some of my skills in that [against Perkins], too. So, when I dropped her in the last round, it’s because she got greedy.”
Read the full article here
