Claressa Shields faces formidable foe in pro boxing debut on Nov. 19
Three months after winning her record-setting second consecutive Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, Claressa Shields will make her professional debut on boxing's biggest stage.
On Nov. 19 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, on the undercard of the highly anticipated Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward light heavyweight title fight on HBO pay-per-view, Shields will enter the ring without headgear for the first time and face an opponent she is intimately familiar with.
Former USA Boxing teammate Franchon Crews faces Shields in a four-round bout at 168 pounds, 3 pounds heavier than both fought at as amateurs. They have faced each other on several occasions, and all Shields would say was that she has never been beaten by a U.S. fighter.
"Let's just say that we have a rivalry going on," Shields, nicknamed T-Rex, said by phone. Shields, 77-1 as an amateur, and Crews, a veteran who has won more than 15 national championships and medaled in the 2012 and 2016 world championships, were the top middleweights in USA Boxing. Crews was an Olympic alternate in 2012 and 2016.
"She's a heavy hitter, and she knows how to fight," said 21-year-old Shields, who added that she currently weighs 166. "If you look at the three top middleweights in the USA, it was always me, Franchon Crews and Tika Hemingway. We were always each other's rivals, and we always had wars when we fought each other. Before I came and took over, Franchon Crews was always the top middleweight."
Both women understand the importance of this debut matchup for women's professional boxing, which has struggled to gain the acceptance that women in mixed martial arts have attained.
"It's definitely a big deal, and it's a big deal for women's boxing, period," Shields said. "We really wanted a fight where we could put on a show.
"It's going to be a competitive match, and I'm going to do the things that got me to where I'm at."
Crews, 29, a talented singer-songwriter from Baltimore and once a contestant on American Idol, took up boxing to lose weight. She loved the sport so much that she stayed with it and has thrived.
"Being on the Kovalev-Ward card with another accomplished fighter like Claressa Shields is such an honor and a step in the right direction for women's boxing and the sport of boxing as a whole," said Crews, who is also working toward her bachelor's degree in business management. "Moments like these don't come frequently.
"Others before me created the blueprint, I opened the door, and Claressa is now ready to walk through it. I am excited about fighting Nov. 19, but the real fight is us tearing down the barriers together."
Shields' co-manager, Mark Taffet, said Crews was not the first one they called as a potential opponent and said they found it difficult to find someone willing to step in the ring with Shields.
"Finding an opponent for Claressa reminded me of Tom Loeffler (of K2 Promotions) trying to find an opponent for Gennady Golovkin," Taffet said, laughing. "There were moments where I thought we might have to call Tom and see if Gennady was available."
Taffet says Shields has made a mission of saying she's the best in the world and backing it up with her performance in the ring. "And she wants fans to look at women's boxing differently than they've looked at it in the past," Taffet said. "She knows this isn't just any pro debut. This is the pro debut of the woman who can change the game forever."
Shields, from Flint, Mich., and now living in Florida, thinks she's the one who can raise the profile of women's boxing, which has been missing a big-name star since Laila Ali.
"I definitely believe I can be the one," she said. "I'm young, I haven't even reached my prime yet. I can be way better than what I am, and right now I believe I'm one of the most dangerous fighters out there. In the next two or three years, I believe I can be one of the greatest (female) boxers who ever lived."
(Photo of Shields during a Detroit Pistons game by Tim Fuller, Paste BN Sports)