Undisputed middleweight world champion, Claressa Shields, has revealed her top three boxers of all-time and it may not come as a shock to hear that she has placed herself amongst the greats.
In an interview with Boxing Social, the American told of her frustration at being unable to knock her opponents out, despite believing to be the far superior boxer in all of her fights.
In her thirteen fights since turning professional, Shields has managed just two stoppages and has gone the distance in her last nine fights. However, despite the lack of knockouts on her résume, Shields believes that they will soon come and maintains that she is one of the best to have ever stepped into the ring.
“I think, me personally, that I am one of the best boxers in the world, male or female. I think it’s Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather, Me, that’s it.”
“I think that I am so good that I’m hard on myself, because I should be knocking these girls out. If I can go out there and win unanimous decisions, I’m always asking myself after the fight, ‘why didn’t you get the knockout?’, ‘how come the knockout didn’t come?’
So, for me, that is what I am working on, I got all the skills and the power and everything, I just have to figure it out and put it all together and I’ve been fighting some of the toughest competition ever, since I turned pro. I’m going to continue learning and building, but I think that the knockouts are getting closer and closer.”
With Shields sat comfortably at the top of the division, there are plenty of fights to make and the ones that standout are against Brits, so we could see the ‘GWOAT’ returning to the U.K. in the near future.
A rematch with Savannah Marshall is being talked about, despite Shields winning the first fight with relative ease and potential fights with Natasha Jonas and Lauren Price continue to gain attention.