Claressa Shields Talks Ali
For a brief moment, boxing fans had become all hot and bothered over a potential fight between unified middleweight champion Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (10-0, 2 KO’s) and retired former champion Laila “She Bee Stingin” Ali (24-0, 21 KO’s).
Following a vicious war of words via social media and on various radio shows, the boxing community really wanted to see this scrap. Unfortunately for those eager to witness this fight, the feud appears to be losing a great deal of steam.
WE CAN STILL DO IT
While the fighters themselves don’t seem to be pressing for the prizefight with all that much gusto, that doesn’t mean that the fans and media are done hoping. While providing an exclusive interview with IFL TV, Shields let it be known that she is certainly still up for the scrap if it presented itself to her.
“Hey, she said she would knock me out if she had time to get ready for a fight, so I’m like, ‘hey, well do it, you know?!’ It’s as realistic as she wants it to be! I’m a two-time world champion, two-time Olympic champ, undisputed. I’ve already accomplished more than Laila will ever accomplish in boxing. And you know, maybe she is jealous of that a little bit.
At the end of the day, I respect her for starting the flame of women’s boxing but if she wants to come out of retirement and fuck with me, I’ll fuck her up! That’s just me being honest.
…I heard him [Eddie Hearn] do some talk about me and Laila Ali fighting, about him putting the money up. If he is serious about putting the money up, I’m dead-ass serious about fighting. He need to send that her way and send her the check and get it done so we can actually fight. And if not, I’m really not pressed about any of it. I’m really like whatever, if they want to fight they want to fight, if they don’t [shrugs shoulders] they don’t.”
ALI AND BRAEKHUS TEAM UP
Before the social media feud was launched with Ali, Shields was openly gunning to the undisputed welterweight champion “First Lady” Cecilia Braekhus (36-0, 9 KO’s). It was her pursuit of Braekhus which inspired Shields to start dropping down in the weight classes in the first place.
Sadly for T-Rex, as she began making the necessary physical transformation to make the bout a reality, the First Lady’s interest in the prizefight commenced to fizzling out. However, this did not stop Braekhus from posting a pic of herself along with, Shields’ antagonist, Laila Ali.
When T-Rex first saw the photo, she reacted in automatic knee-jerk fashion. Yet, looking back on it now, she wishes that she would have thought better of her quick response.
“…[when] I said come to 154 so I can beat yo ass, right, people thought I was calling out Leila Ali! They don’t even know that Cecilia Braekhus is a fucking fighter! So that right there made me realize like I shouldn’t have even responded.
Because Cecilia was one of the girls who was calling me fat when I was at 168, saying I was too big. And then I come down to 154 and you want to run to 140 to fight against Katie Taylor. So it’s like look, I don’t have nothing to prove. Cecilia knows she cant beat me but if she wants to be annoying and do stuff like that, I mean that’s fine but she’ll never go down in history as the greatest woman of all time! It’ll just be me or Laila Ali, her best friend!”
By: Bakari Simpson
