Years ago RnB Singer Maxwell famously sang the ode ‘This Woman’s Work’, ahead of this awards season let’s take a look at Claressa Shields’ 2018
As we approach the end of the year, inevitably, various types of lists start to crop up and we learn the winners of boxing’s different awards. One of the most coveted awards in the sport would obviously be Fighter of The Year.
For 2018, undisputed Cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk could be atop the short list for many. The unbeaten Ukrainian Olympic Gold Medalist and Muhammad Ali Trophy winner spent the past 12 months participating in the World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight tournament, defeating WBC champion Mairis Briedis and IBF/WBA champion Murat Gassiev to unify the division and hoist one of the most unique awards in all of boxing. For an encore, in November Usyk put all of his belts on the line in a showdown with former Cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew in Manchester.
Unbelievably impressive, indeed.
WBC Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder might have had a case had his recent fight with Lineal champion Tyson Fury concluded with a 12th round knockout and not a split decision draw.
Lightweight champion Mikey Garcia won a Super Lightweight title and then added 135-pound IBF title to go along with his WBC strap.
Vasiliy Lomachenko? He won the WBA title in his first bout at Lightweight, and just became a unified champion by winning a unanimous decision by defeating WBO champion Jose Pedraza.
With most of boxing’s elite men only managing to fight once a year nowadays, Usyk probably sits firmly in the driver’s seat for FOTY. Perhaps it is clear cut – if we only look among the men.
In contrast to the aforementioned men, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Claressa “T-Rex” Shields nearly worked overtime in 2018. And, in more ways than one. Shields started the year off by defending her IBF and WBC Super Middleweight titles against veteran and former world champion Tori Nelson. She then dropped down to Middleweight to face unified Super Welterweight champion Hanna Gabriels for the vacant IBF and WBA titles in June. The Flint native overcame a first round knock down in Detroit, Michigan to earn a unanimous decision, becoming a unified champion in a second division in just her sixth fight.
Following that bout, Showtime and Salita Promotions announced the highly anticipated mid-November showdown between Shields and the division’s other unified champion Christina Hammer. Unfortunately, an undisclosed medical condition Hammer caused that bout to be scrapped, consequently Shields popped up on the DAZN USA app on a Matchroom Boxing card to face Hannah Rankin for the vacant WBA Middleweight title. She picked up Hammer’s former title by sweeping all ten rounds on each of the three judge’s cards.
Within a few days, a Shields fight was added to HBO’s December 8 show, a Cecilia Braekhus-headlined card badly in need of greater appeal. Shields easily outclassed Femke Hermans en route to consecutive clean sweep of all ten rounds on each of the three judge’s cards.
That’s three titles in a second division, an appearance on what was boxing’s only other premium network, and a title fight on a streaming app all while only losing a pair of rounds (out of 40 total rounds for 2018) during the Gabriels fight.
The name recognition isn’t there with Shields’ four opponents, and collectively their career records pale in comparison to the combined 76-2-1 record of Usyk’s three opponents. However, if we factor in the historical significance of Shields’ Showtime fights – the June card featured Hammer vs Tori Nelson as the co-main event – along with a peak audience of 410,000 viewers for the Middleweight unification bout with Gabriels, we simply can’t disregard Shields’ impact in boxing.
Usky may likely be headed for Fighter Of The Year honors, and frankly it wouldn’t be undeserving. Hopefully Shields’ achievements won’t go completely unnoticed by boxing writers, but if so Usyk wouldn’t be joining an exclusive fraternity, nor would any other male fighter who could be selected. The oft defiant Shields might not be too concerned with recognition for a single year, not as she maintains pursuit of accolades that will resonate for all-time. That’s ‘of all-time’, as in Greatest Woman.
The 23-year old put in some great work this past year, but in 2019 we assuredly can tell champ we “know you’ve got a little life in you left…”
All photos courtesy of Stephanie Trapp/Showtime
Pay Me No Mind
Pay Me No Mind is a bi-weekly guest-based sports and entertainment podcast that is fueled by hip hop, traditionally handcrafted RnB, movies, TV series and sports. PMNM host, Wood, will focus on sharing the stories of guests from various industries including entrepreneurs, comedians, spoken word artists, musical artists, and athletes. In addition to the podcast episodes PMNM will also feature links to Wood's articles posted at www.goingfor2.com - primarily boxing, entertainment, and random sports stories. Feel free to weigh in on any of the random posts shared each day.
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