On Sunday night at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields in the Main Event defeated Danielle Perkins, now 5-1, with a tenth-round knockdown after nine dull rounds. The victory gave Shields the IBF, WBO, WBA, WBC, and WBF World Heavyweight titles.
Both weighed under 175 pounds, and maybe in women’s boxing, that is heavyweight, though in men’s boxing, it’s a light heavyweight.
Shields has come under heavy criticism for defending her title against someone with a mere five fights. At times, she seemed hesitant by the large size of her opponent to engage her in battle until the later rounds.
As a writer, I covered Shields’s fight in April of 2019 against Kazakhstan’s Christina Hammer, then 24-0, out of Germany, who was the WBC and WBO Middleweight champion. Whenever Hammer went on the attack, American referee Sparkle Lee would interfere, stopping her attack. Though the scores were 99-91 twice and 98-92 it was my opinion Hammer was treated unfairly.
In the Hammer dressing room, I wanted to tell her how she was cheated, but promoter Tom Loeffler was standing there telling me not to mention it. Once he left the room, I told her how she was still a champion in my opinion. A woman sitting there, whom I have no idea who was, cried about the loss.
Hammer took the loss very hard, only fighting four winning times since. In her second match, she won the vacant WIBF Super Middleweight title in Germany, as were all her other matches. After her final win in May of 2022, she retired with a 28-1 and 13 knockout record.
Shields has since won seven matches, with her previous fight over an opponent with a 7-1 record.
In looking back at some other women boxers, several come into mind, such as IBO and WIBF Super Lightweight champion Lucia ‘The Dutch Destroyer’ Rijker, 17-0 with 14 stoppages of the Netherlands. The other is IBA and WIBA Light Heavyweight champion Ann ‘Brown Sugar’ Wolfe, 24-1 with 16 stoppages from Waco, Texas, one hard-hitting woman.
Others well known are the daughter of former world heavyweight champion Muhammad ‘The Greatest’ Ali, WBC, and WIBA Super Middleweight champion Laila ‘She Bee Stingin’ Ali, 24-0 with 21 stoppages, who retired when she got pregnant.
One of her opponents was the daughter of former heavyweight champion ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier, ‘Sister Smoke’ Jacqui Frazier Lyde, 13-1 with nine stoppages, GBU Super Middleweight and UBA Heavyweight champion. Another was WBC Super Welterweight champion Christy ‘Coalminer’s Daughter’ Martin, 49-7-3 with 32 stoppages, a pioneer for women’s boxing.
Two-time Olympian, 2012 Gold Medalist WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, and IBO Super Lightweight champion Katie Taylor, 24-1 with 6 stoppages, from Ireland.
WIBF Super Flyweight champion Germany’s Regina Halmich, 54-1-1 with 16 stoppages, had a lot of weak opposition with 40 title defenses.