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Claressa Shields Shocked As She’s Stripped Of Title: “I Didn’t Vacate Nothing!”

Written by Kerr Ferguson on 1st October 2022.

Claressa Shields With Belts

Claressa Shields takes her accomplishments in the sport seriously, and rightly so. She’s helped change the game for women’s boxing, picking up two gold medals and multiple world titles across three divisions whilst doing so.

But competing at different weights has its downfall, as the Michigan fighter found out this week. While she prepares to face Savannah Marshall for the undisputed middleweight belts, The Ring magazine have taken her super welterweight title.

The situation was explained in a recent Ring article.

“‘T-Rex’ [Shields] has not fought at 154 pounds for over 18 months and has no apparent plans to return to the weight any time soon. Therefore, she was stripped from her Ring belt, just in time for the winner of the recently announced fight between current No. 1 Marie Eve Dicaire and No. 2 Natasha Jonas to be eventually crowned as the new champ.”

It’s a fair decision if Shields indeed hadn’t planned on defending – but the problem is that it was news to her and her team. Her manager, Mark Taffet, told Detroit News that they weren’t informed prior to the article’s release. The self-proclaimed – although many fans agree – Greatest Woman Of All Time took to Twitter to address the situation.

“I DIDN’T VACATE NOTHING! What the hell y’all talking about?”

“And honestly of course one fight at a time but after I beat Marshall I have no problem going back to 154 and giving all the new champs smoke.”

Shields last fought at 154lb in March of 2021 – a win over Marie Eve Dicaire. Since then she has fought twice at 160lb as well as competing in mixed martial arts.

It’s a situation that fans may be split over. On the one hand, in a flourishing branch of the sport competitors should be encouraged to pursue the most challenging fights, and that may involve going up and down in weight for extended periods of time. Still though, a year and a half of inactivity with no fight at said weight scheduled – it’s not exactly a surprise that The Ring are giving another two fighters a chance at the belt.

Either way, it does seem poor form that the fighter wasn’t notified before the public. Taffet later confirmed to Detroit News that, whilst the publication recognised they should have been in touch with Shields earlier, the decision remains the same citing the rule that they “do not allow a fighter to hold a Ring belt in two weight divisions [while being] inactive in one of those divisions for 18 months.”

Claressa Sheilds faces Savannah Marshall at London’s O2 Arena on October 15 in an event that was rescheduled because of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. The fight is to be contested at the middleweight limit of 160lb.