Claressa Shields vs Christina Hammer
By Felipe Leon
Although many believe the best recent year in professional female boxing was in 2017 when the sport exploded on U.S. airwaves or at least much more than in the ten years before, 2019 brings us the first truly mega fight of the sport.
On Saturday, April 13th, on the Showtime network, the undefeated WBC/IBF/WBA middleweight champion Claressa Shields (8-0, 2KO) will face the also unbeaten Christina Hammer (24-0, 11KO) for the WBO strap. The winner of the scheduled ten round main even will be considered the undisputed unified champion.
The fight is considered the biggest female boxing match in history. So much so that Showtime commissioned the first every “All Access” for a female fight. The first episode debuted last week.
Originally they were supposed to meet at the end of last year but a stomach ailment medical issue forced the 28-year-old Hammer from postponing.
Now the table is set.
“Just excited we got the fight locked in and I have been training,” Shields said in an exclusive interview with the 2-Minute Round, the all-female boxing podcast.
After perhaps the most successful amateur career by any American-born fighter where Shields lost only one fight in nearly 100 matches and captured two gold medals, the first American fighter to ever achieve it, the Flint, Michigan native went pro in late 2016 with a unanimous decision over fellow amateur standout Franchon Crews-Dezurn in the super middleweight division.
“My most competitive fight was my pro debut against Franchon Crews,” Shields said of the fight that was part of the Ward vs. Kovalev Pay-Per-View undercard. “It was at high altitude, I couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t breathe. We were throwing bombs at each other and it was our pro debut. That was one of those pay-per-view fights.”
Four of Shields’ first five fights were at 168 pounds with one quick excursion down to middleweight in her second pro fight to capture the NABF title. She was down for good last summer when she faced super welterweight champion Hanna Gabriels of Costa Rica for the vacant IBF and WBA titles.
Many consider the Gabriels fight the toughest for Shields as a professional.
“Out of all of my fights people want me to say Hanna Gabriels but that was not my hardest fight as far as being a pro,” Shields said disagreeing with popular opinion. “People can say it was competitive, she dropped me, but I won every round after being dropped.”
“Hanna Gabriels is a good fighter and she caught me with a lucky punch,” he added. “It was flash knockdown, It wasn’t like she hurt me and I was dizzy or on wobbly legs and couldn’t continue. She almost quit in the seventh round, her husband was considering throwing in the towel.”
Since then Shields, 24, has defended her titles twice while picking up the vacant WBC green and gold belt with a unanimous decision over Hannah Rankin. Her last fight was in December on the last HBO broadcast of their 40-year-old series. She completely dominated Femke Hermans over ten rounds.
“She was a big girl, she was taller than me,” Shields shared about her last fight. “Nobody could probably see this from outside the ring or really understand it but she was really awkward. She would wait until I was finished with punches and then she would run forward with punches. Not like come forward using any kind of form where I could predict her next punch but she was very unorthodox.”
Throwing from everywhere, her head down, it wasn’t anything you could calculate,” she added. “She was really a different kind of fighter. I had to fight on my terms. She wasn’t landing any shots, I won every round.”
Last HBO boxing show
After Hammer announced she would not be able to fight Shields in 2018, it was later announced she would be coming back in March for a tune up fight before the big showdown against the American fighter. Hammer went on to stop the overmatched Elene Sikmashvil in February in the second round of a scheduled eight.
Despite their super fight – contingent on the result of the Hammer-Sikmashvil contest – Shields says she wasn’t worried at all about the result.
“I didn’t feel anything. It was a huge disappointment because I was willing to fight her in March,” she said. “I was supposed to be her first fight back in there. All of a sudden she is fighting someone else. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she wasn’t going to win because of the opponent she was fighting. She fought against a girl that was seven and eight and had been knocked out her last two fights.”
“Just with that I knew it was going to be easy work for her,” Shields added. “If she had lost my goal would have remained the same, to become undisputed and fight anybody that had the belt. It doesn’t matter who has the belt, it is just my job to get them.”
Shields is no stranger to the limelight. A wunderkind in the sport since she first strapped on the gloves in her early teens, she has been under the scrutiny of both fans and detractors for quite a while. She mentions it has been no different now with the biggest fight of her career just weeks away.
“Since the fight was announced I’ve gotten messages from fans some saying they think I am a great fighter but we don’t think you are ready for Hammer,” she explained. “People have tried to tell me how I should fight her, and then I shouldn’t stay in the outside, that I should go in the inside and be super aggressive. I’ve had people tell me I shouldn’t throw anything but body shots. Making it seem like I am the one that will have to make all the adjustments. I think that people underestimate my skills.”
“People fail to realize that I am the one that’s been to the Olympics twice,” Shields stated. “I am the one that has fought against all these different countries and different styles, not Christina Hammer. People don’t realize the opponents that I have fought in only two years of being pro. Christina Hammer would not do well against Hanna Gabriels. If Christina Hammer had fought Tori Nelson years ago she wouldn’t have done well against her either. Who has Christina Hammer fought for everybody to say that she is just going to walk through me? I don’t even think she has the skills or the power, honestly.”
“Really I have been thinking it could be a quick stoppage, like a third or fourth round knockout, or it is going to be a late stoppage, like the ninth or tenth round. I believe I can pressure Hammer and hurt her so bad I believe she will quit. She will quit if it is too hard or it is not going her way. It’s not going to go her way. When she loses the first five rounds she is going to be looking for a way out. She is going to try to hold, she is going to try to make me foul her. She is going to look for a way out; she knows she can’t beat me. I watched her fight against Anne Sophie Mathis. She quit. She gave up.”
In that fight Hammer had everything she could handle against the French Mathis. Mathis was relentless with the pressure early in the fifth round of the fight that took place in the summer of 2014 in Germany. The French fighter punched Hammer near the back of the head when Hammer looked to hold. Hammer went down to the canvas and couldn’t continue. The bout was ruled a no-contest. The fight was for the vacant WBO middleweight title. With the disqualification of Mathis, Hammer was declared the new champion.
“She got knocked out,” Shields added. “That wasn’t a disqualification. She got hit and fell down to the ground. That is a knockout.”
Pound for Pound
As always Shields is more than confident in beating Hammer, giving herself a 99% chance to ending the fight with her hand raised. If she achieves it, then what will motivate her as much as this mega-fight?
“I would love to fight against Cecilia Braekhus at 154,” she answered. “I have come down from 168 to 160 and then 154, that would be three weight classes. I believe Cecilia Braekhus can come up to 154. It is not about fighting for any belt but it would be the two undisputed champions meeting at 154 to decide who is really the pound for pound. They consider the pound for pound champion when I feel that overall pound for pound as a boxer I am a better fighter. I want to fight her to prove that she is #2 and I am #1. We can both keep our belts at 160 and 147. I think that fight would be worthy of Pay-Per-View.”
##
To Listen to the complete interview, please visit BlogTalkRadio.com/2MinRound
(Photo of trainer John David Jackson and Claressa Shields at El Cholos restaurant taken by Al Applerose)