By Tre Berry
Ladies & Gentlemen, your new UNDISPUTED Middleweight World Champion…Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields (9-0-0, 2KO).
Shields defeated longtime Middleweight Champion Christina Hammer (24-1-0, 11KO) by way of a dominant unanimous decision in which all official scorecards had identical results. In the most important fight in women’s boxing history, Shields managed to unify all WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF & RING-MAGAZINE belts, answering all questions and leaving nothing to speculation as to who the best is in the Middleweight division, also leaving a strong impression when considering the overall P4P picture.
The fight started out with Hammer trying to establish distance behind her jab, and Shields standing stationary assessing what Hammer had in her arsenal, and relying on her counter-punching to find her target.
Hammer had trouble establishing her jab while headhunting instead of jabbing to the chest while Shields remained an elusive target and found ways to get inside. With Hammer having zero inside game, and her not being able to get the stick working to keep her shorter opponent at bay, it turned out to be a recipe for disaster from about the 4th round on, with very minimal adjustments made on Hammers behalf, getting picked apart by a sharp, clever approach that Shields brought to this fight.
This was Claressa’s most complete performance of her short but eventful professional career, and in just 8 professional fights, managed to not only become an Undisputed Champion, but also a 6X World Champion, which is outstanding feat in and of itself, but even more considering it took her just 8 fights in the professional ranks, another chapter written in her storied book of accomplishments.
INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT – In the post-fight questioning, Shields of course was on cloud 9, ecstatic about her performance, and what she had just accomplished. She also expressed that since her and great P4P Welterweight Champion Cecilia Brækhus (35-0-0, 9KO) are the only current Undisputed Champions in boxing (Claressa at 160, Brækhus at 147), that she would like to meet her in between weights at the Super-Welterweight (154) division for another blockbuster showdown of even bigger magnitude. Of course we are interested in Brækhus response to the call out, but for now, we recognize an outstanding performance by Shields who took the fight to Hammer, and achieved her ultimate goal.
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OFFICIAL SCORECARDS
Guido Cavalieri = 98 – 92 for CLARESSA SHIELDS
Lynne Carter = 98 – 92 for CLARESSA SHIELDS
Robin Taylor = 98 – 92 for CLARESSA SHIELDS
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PROJECT COMBAT SCORECARDS
Tré Berry = 98 – 92 for CLARESSA SHIELDS
Jon Uddin = 98 – 92 for CLARESSA SHIELDS