Claressa Shields, “The Fire Inside” should clear things up

LAS VEGAS – In so many ways, in so many interviews, in so many fights, Claressa Shields has been trying to get her point across.

Whether the listener wanted to hear it, whether the principled message was being delivered correctly, or whether Shields was saying things that made the status quo uncomfortable, there has remained a divide keeping the masses from comprehending the greatest women’s boxer in history.

Now, as her life story, captured in the film “The Fire Inside,” heads to movie theaters in late December, Shields is hopeful her journey from Flint, Mich., to two gold medals and world titles from super-welterweight to heavyweight will provide the needed perspective to illustrate where she’s coming from.

“I want people to understand when they watch my film that they understand what they haven’t before: that my boxing is a passion for me,” Shields said. “I’m not being forced to box, and I don’t have to box to heal. It has helped me grow into the person I was supposed to be.” 

Shields, 29, sat down with BoxingScene during the recent Canelo Alvarez fight week in Las Vegas, playing the trailer from her film written by Barry Jenkins and fighting tears knowing that her full story will be out there around Christmas, along with her return to the ring following her July second-round TKO of Vanessa Lepage-Joannise to capture the WBC heavyweight and WBO light-heavyweight belts.

“By December-January, I’d like to have another fight. I’m all about history. I want the biggest and best challenges,” she said. “Right now, the heavyweight girls are calling me out. They want to fight me. I know them all, and undisputed at heavyweight will put me at the tops with Muhammad Ali and (Oleksandr) Usyk, Evander Holyfield. I’ll be able to talk to those guys.”

Before heading to training camp, Shields is savoring this experience of knowing her life story is heading to the silver screen, where so many amazing real-life and fictional works – “Raging Bull,” “Rocky,” “Ali,” “When We Were Kings,” and “Million Dollar Baby” – have moved the world.

After learning a movie studio was picking up the rights to the documentary, “T-Rex,” that depicted three years of her life before and after the 2016 Olympics, Shields was contacted by Jenkins.

They met in person for four hours, with Shields maintaining her typically unfiltered, candid demeanor.

“I wanted to meet him to know I could actually trust him to do the storytelling,” she said. 

She asked Jenkins, “What do you think my life story is? How do you see me? What is your perception?”

She listened to his response and replied, “OK, we’re somewhere near the same thing. This is my perception of it, and this is what I want to be included that I know you wouldn’t include in regular movies.”

About two months later, Jenkins sent Shields the script before any actors had been retained.

“Anything you want taken out, anything you want moved, anything you don’t want mentioned, let me know,” Jenkins told Shields.

She made one cut, declining to divulge what it was.

“He did a great job writing the story. Some of the stuff he included was great … because a lot of times, my story has been misconstrued,” Shields said.

It’s been known that Shields was sexually assaulted as a 5-year-old, that her mother battled alcohol abuse in Shields’ youth, and that she didn’t connect with her formerly incarcerated father until the age of 9 before taking up boxing at 11.

“People have written things that are not true or made it worse than what it was, or what I was focused on,” Shields said. “I had a very hard upbringing. But I also had boxing, and boxing saved my life.

“The story before was that I was some kind of angry black woman who got raped when I was a kid and I hate all men, so I learned how to box to fight men … that’s not my story. But that’s how it was depicted for a long time.

“So I wanted to make sure we didn’t go down that road, that we actually got it right and make it clear how I’m passionate about boxing. I love boxing. It’s what I chose to do. God chose me to box. And I’m the person who’s supposed to change the whole sport – not just with women’s boxing. But boxing, period. I’ve been able to do that.”

Shields is portrayed by actress Ryan Destiny, the boxer comparing the integrity of Destiny’s work to that of Will Smith’s in “Ali.” Rachel Morrison directed “The Fire Inside.”

“Everybody will understand that it’s always been about my passion for boxing. They think when you have trauma and then you box that it’s all about trauma, anger and boxing. That you’re angry,” Shields explained.

“I’m not angry to box. It’s something I’ve taken the most joy in my life from doing. I’m passionate about boxing.”

It’s why she’s had no problem calling out fighters like Gervonta Davis for his domestic violence, Ryan Garcia over his erratic behavior and Jake Paul over comments that he’s helped grow women’s boxing by putting multi-division champion Amanda Serrano on his cards.

“When you see a guy come talking trash to me and hear me say, ‘I’ll kick his ass,’ I really mean that – in the most humble way,” Shields said. “I’ve done that. I do that. I train very hard.”

She even took Alvarez to task, responding to his comment that he accepted the Sept. 14 date against big underdog Edgar Berlanga because Canelo had “fought everyone else.” 

“Canelo hasn’t fought everyone. We still haven’t seen (David) Benavidez. Benavidez and (Dmitrii) Bivol. There’s people for him to fight, and there’s people for me to fight, too,” Shields said.

“When you can go as low as 154 and go all the way to heavyweight, there’s always going to be someone very good who can challenge you. There’s girls at 154 who I think can challenge me. They’re just scared. I think they’re good!”

By sparring against men for most of her boxing career, Shields said she has developed a toughness and grit that has contributed greatly to her 15-0 pro record.

“Me boxing – having to rise to these occasions, having to be on TV, having desires outside the ring – has helped me grow into the woman I am today,” she said. “It was all from my passion of fighting. It’s why I did MMA. I didn’t do MMA because I’m angry. I did it because I’m a great ass kicker. I can kick ass in MMA and boxing.”

Shields made it clear in her conversation with BoxingScene that she relishes being a woman.

“I can go to 147 (pounds), but I told (promoters and networks), ‘I need a couple million for that. Because my butt’s going to get little. And I don’t want that,’” Shields said, adding in her present-day weight of 178 pounds. “I like how I look. That means a lot. I’m a woman. These other girls out there looking all strong … I look strong, but I look feminine. That’s very important to me. I’m a woman boxer – woman first. I need to keep my curves and my looks. You want me to go to 147, I will. Just pay me my money.”

And while Alvarez, at 34, has expressed some fatigue with the business of boxing, Shields says she’s continually enthused by the sport.

“I’m always excited to fight. That’s the difference between me and other people. I’m in the back room dancing before a fight, they’re telling me, ‘Claressa, sit down, save your energy,’” she said.

“I’ve already put myself through the hard work, the brutal stress and the roadwork. Now, I get to eat, drink my water and juice and now I get to fight with no restraints.

“In sparring, you don’t want to knock your partners out. When you’ve got a fight, hey, it’s all or nothing. I love when I get to be as mean as I want to be, punch as hard as I want to punch, with nobody saying, ‘Hey, taper it down some.’ No, it’s, ‘Keep turning it up.’ I’m excited about that every time. And the buildup, too. These girls saying I don’t have power, that I haven’t fought nobody. It’s just, ‘Back it up when we get in there.’ When they can’t do that, I beat ‘em up real bad.”

Watching those scenes of her life play out on the big screen at the film’s screening in Toronto recently was powerful, leaving the strong-minded champion fighter reduced to a puddle of tears at times.

“God has done some miraculous things with my life that I can’t put into words. I’m grateful and thankful to see what God has done with this little Black girl from Flint,” Shields said.

She said she’s always been touched by a Biblical passage urging the faithful to maintain hope for the future, where prosperity awaits. Shields did so and was rewarded.

Asked what scenes made her weep, she said, “You have to come and see it, and you will know why I cry. Reliving it on film … you usually don’t get to do that with your life. You may get to watch a couple family videos. For me, to have a movie of my life is tear-worthy by itself.

“Happy tears, sad tears, all over the place. But you will leave feeling like you can conquer the world.”