A few days before Claressa Shields met Christina Hammer for the undisputed women’s middleweight world championship on Saturday night, Shields made it clear how the fight would go and what she wanted people to say after the bout.
“When I beat Christina Hammer on Saturday, I want everyone’s headline to say, ‘Shields nails the Hammer,’ ” Shields said.
Well, Shields did just that, backing up all of her trash talk and then some in a masterful performance at the Adrian Phillips Theater at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Shields dominated and beat up Hammer en route to a one-sided unanimous decision to claim the undisputed title in one of the most significant fights in women’s boxing history.
All three judges scored the bout 98-92 for Shields, who became just the second woman of the four-belt era to hold all the major world titles in one division. The other is reigning undisputed women’s welterweight world champion Cecilia Braekhus.
There also have been only four men to hold all four belts at the same time: cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who accomplished the feat last year; junior welterweight Terrence Crawford; and middleweights Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins.
