Claressa Shields Clears the Air on Savannah Marshall
For whatever the reason, unified world middleweight champion Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (9-0, 2 KO’s) gets a great deal of flak about outside-the-ring aggression. When it comes to an upcoming in ring opponent, Shields is one of the best at talking rough and raw. Yet, the stigma that frequently follows her is that she can be a nasty person in general.
IS T-REX A TERRIBLE TERROR?
For the better part of it, those who endorse this narrative are either flat out detractors of Shields or have some form of political and professional reason to do so. In her own opinion, T-Rex thinks of herself as being a very caring, open and approachable champion.
Through the lens of her various social media accounts, Claressa Shields can regularly be seen at charity and social outreach events. Also, Shields is often caught giving props to a number of fellow female fighters. She has done this for boxers and a MMA competitors alike.
For example, even after their fight together, Shields has remained very friendly with WBC world super middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (6-1, 2 KO’s). On a number of occasions Shields, has showered Crews-Dezurn with praise regarding her boxing and her many side hustles.
Like Shields, the native Virginian is a staple on social media and also fashions fighting trunks for professional boxers. In fact, Crews-Dezurn has created trunks that T-Rex has competed in.
So why folks are so determined to color her as some constantly angry malcontent is a mystery to Claressa Shields. Being that the phenomenon is nothing that she can control, Shields doesn’t lose too much sleep over the reckless loose lips of her hecklers. This doesn’t mean that from time to time she will not address them or their messages.
CLEARING THE AIR
Along these lines, Claressa Shields made a point in a recent interview with IFL TV to state that she has no malicious thoughts towards Savannah “Silent Assassin” Marshall (8-0, 6 KO’s). Earlier this week, via her InstaGram account, T-Rex announced that she wanted to stage a fight with Marshall in 2020. During their amateur days, the Silent Assassin was the only person to best Shields in the ring.
Naturally, as a professional, the Flint, Michigan native wants the opportunity to avenge that loss from seven years ago. However, the unified middleweight champion was adamant that she held no ill-will toward Marshall overall. During the segment with IFL TV, Marshall was standing there with Shields. In fact, Shields was looking directly at Savannah Marshall as she told the world that she did not hate her.
“And to clear the air, I don’t hate her. I don’t know where they got that narrative from, I don’t hate nobody. I’m a fighter, of course I would love to avenge my loss when I was 17, but that was seven years ago. I’m 24 now. And the Olympics happened twice after that, so I don’t hate her.
“Do I want to fighter her, ‘yes,’ but I don’t hate you [stated to Marshall]. We knew that when I saw you at the Mayweather gym, we took a picture. If I hated you would have been like ‘fuck you, I’m not taking a picture!’ But we took the picture, I don’t hate her, we’re looking forward to a fight in the future and it’ll definitely happen. I’m not retiring anytime soon, so, you know, just hit me up!” ~Claressa Shields, unified middleweight champion
REAL STATIC VERSUS MANUFACTURED
Despite going out of her way to established herself as a level-headed and altruistic person, her critics will not stop with their negative description. This is not to say that Shields is some flower sniffing hippie that gets along with everyone.
The middleweight champion does share a very public and snarky relationship with Raquel “Pretty Beast” Miller (9-0, 4 KO’s). Nothing about their interactions are neutral or friendly. However, their bitter interactions don’t define either woman as a whole.
Ideally, this negative chatter about Shields’ poor personality will begin to dissipate a bit. Yet, in the end, no one is holding their breath waiting for this to happen.
By: Bakari Simpson
