Claressa Shields is now a two-division undisputed champion of the world after she came out victorious in the much-awaited female light-middleweight unification clash against Marie-Ève Dicaire, defeating her Canadian opponent via unanimous decision at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan.
During the heated buildup to the unification bout, Claressa Shields (11-0, 2 KOs) made it clear that she would not give an inch to Marie-Ève Dicaire (17-1, 0 KOs), who on the other hand, kept faith in her karate background.
Shields took a patient approach inside the squared circle, and as a result, outpaced Dicaire to an astounding 128-31 total punches. Moreover, during the final ten seconds of each round, Shields changed her composed approach to landing power jabs.
At the end of 10 rounds, Shields came out as ther winner via UD as the three judges scored 100-90, 100-90, 100-90 in her favour to mark her historic undisputed championship victory in Flint which saw the presence of only 375 spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Claressa Shields: Only undisputed champion in two weight classes ever, wanted a knockout victory
Alongside defending her WBC and WBO titles, Claressa Shields clinched the IBF belt from Dicaire, who held it since December 2018, alongside winning the vacant WBA (Super) crown.
The two-time Olympic Gold medallist has set a new record as being the only boxer during the four-belt era, male or female, to reign as the undisputed champion in two different weight classes.
Before soaring to the top at 154, the “GWOAT” held the undisputed title at middleweight, and it leaves no room for any doubt that Shields is indeed on the path for proving her self-proclaimed ‘Greatest of All Time’ stature.
“It just don’t feel real to say undisputed twice,” Shields told Dan Canobbio after the victory, “it’s kind of weird. It’s like some epic s**t.”
However, the pugilist lamented that a knockout victory over Dicaire would be more desirable than a UD win.
Shields continued, “[The scores were] 90-100, I can’t be mad about it. But, you know, she just kept head-butting me and elbowing me. And I was trying to get the knockout.”
“That’s really what I wanted, and I almost had it a couple times,” the 25-year-old went on, “but, you know, we got two minutes and then we got the ref breaking up the fight for 30 seconds when she’s holding and f*****g elbowing me and stuff.”
“I’m happy, but I still wanted the KO. I just didn’t have enough time,” Shields added.
