Laila Ali: “Claressa Shields is not talented enough to beat me!”
On the one hands Shields was completely respectful of the former super middleweight’s achievements and immense contributions to women’s boxing as a whole. On the other hand however, T-Rex was openly miffed about what she perceived to be a fundamental lack of personal respect.
If she were to have it her way, the two women would come together in a united front to help raise women’s boxing up to never before seen heights. However, Shields is not the only person with access to a microphone!
In a recent interview of her own, conducted by Sway in the Morning on Shade45, Ali supplied her two cents on how she felt about T-Rex. And to be honest, some would say that the former fighter was throwing just a little bit of shade!
THE CLAP BACK!
During her segment on the Breakfast Club, one of Shields’ major gripes about Ali was the fact that she did not show her any support. With all the major milestones that she had obtained T-Rex felt as though Ali could have reached out to her, or in some other way gave her a tangible pat on the back. According to Shields, Ali has reached out to Irish fighter Katie Taylor numerous times in a glowing show of respect. This is why, in many ways, Shields felt somewhat slighted.
However when on Sway’s radio show, Ali said that not only does she respect Shields, and acknowledge her talent that she did offer to spar her and had done her own segments to promote her career. Beyond that, Ali said that she had text T-Rex on a number of occasions and attempted to give her professional advice.
Although, once that portion was said Ali definitely returned fire and upped the ante while doing so!
Whereas Shields felt as though she would “win” against a prime Ali, the latter stated that she would knock T-Rex out! Yet, not stopping there, she went on to disparage the three-division champ’s boxing ability and highlighted this as the prime reason why the self-proclaimed GWAOT has so very few stoppage victories.
“First of all she could never beat me! Let’s just get that straight right now. We’re not even in the same weight class. I know that she walks around heavier but that would not happen.
“And not simply because she’s not strong enough because I would definitely knock her out, but because she is not talented enough to beat me. You’re talented, you can box, you can throw those hard punches but there’s a sweet science to boxing.”
SPARRING NO SHOW
Another notable revelation in the interview was when Ali confined in Sway and his listeners that she actually had offered Shields the chance to spar with her. This was done to be a helpful assistant and to check were Shields heart was. And if you let Ali tell it, T-Rex shrank back from the proposal.
“But I’ll tell you what! When I offered her to spar me that definitely was a check to see what kind of heart she has. Because you should come whoop me just for bragging rights. But I know that conversation changed and she didn’t take me up on that offer!
“I said ‘okay!”
While it’s a very far-fetched idea to believe that Ali will return from retirement to settle this matter in the ring, it’s almost a guarantee that this verbal feud is about kick up into high gear! Stay tuned to 3kingsboxing.com to see who says what next!
By: Bakari Simpson
