Claressa Shields – The three-weight undisputed champion and the queen without a home

A two-time Olympic gold medallist, she has held 17 major world championships spanning five weight classes as a pro.

At the age of 30, she remains unbeaten, and you could argue she is also still very much in or around her athletic prime.

You could also argue that it’s a boom time for boxing largely thanks to the significant financial investments spearheaded by Turki Alalshikh - chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority - in the men’s game and Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) in the women’s code. 

And yet despite this Shields finds herself out in the cold currently, a promotional free agent. A champion without a home.    

There’s a phrase, ‘In business as in life, you don't get what you deserve you get what you negotiate’.

This sentiment suggests that simply believing you are entitled to something is not enough; you must be able to effectively communicate, persuade, and reach mutually agreeable terms with others to secure your objectives.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani earlier this year, Shields said “I believe I should be getting paid five, ten, fifteen million a fight.”

In the same interview she alluded that while she has banked seven figures for some of her fights in the past, she has not hit the level of remuneration she feels her talents deserve.  

It’s bizarre that promoters are not queuing up to work with Shields. The Michigan star is a three-weight undisputed champion, unbeaten and one of the best trash talkers in the sport.

Her GWOAT nickname - Greatest Woman of All Time - suggests she is not lacking in the confidence department either.  

Her most recent fight against Lani Daniels drew 15,000 fans at Detroit's Little Caesars Arena.

In the UK in 2022 – along with British rival Savannah Marshall – the GWOAT sold more than 15,000 tickets at London's O2 Arena, with a peak TV audience on Sky of two million.

That bill was the most-watched women's professional boxing event in history.

The fact that some of her rivals in the women’s code are making bank must irk Shields privately.

Indeed, the purse for the third Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight was a record-breaking $18 million, split equally between the two boxers.

It’s not been a smooth journey for T-Rex. After beating Marshall – her great amateur rival – her stock should have been at its highest.

Instead, she only boxed once over the next 20 months, a points win over Maricela Cornejo that largely went under the radar. 

In terms of the here and now, it’s almost unbelievable that the undisputed women's heavyweight champion is a promotional free agent, and yet here we are.

Shields is running out of credible challenges and needs a worthy dance partner to boost both her career and her profile.

The American is almost too good for her own good, to the point some people are dismissive of her greatness and the haters knock her for facing relatively unknown opposition.

The masterful Shields has never truly been given her props and watching her I think of the old George Foreman quote, "Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.”

(STEPHANIE TRAPP/SALITA PROMOTIONS)

Working with fellow American Paul and MVP looks a no-brainer given their clout and reach.

MVP have new super-middleweight champion Shadasia Green so a fight between her and Green could sell, while Paul is also the promoter for Marshall, the last female to beat Shields (in the Amateur World Championships way back in 2012).  

Shields has been linked with fighting Laila Ali, the daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Ali retired a perfect 24-0 record.

The only issue with that fight is Ali retired in 2007, and she is now 47 years old.  

Would Shields’ brand/popularity really soar if she beat down the daughter of ‘The Greatest’, fully 18 years after Ali’s last fight?  

Stranger things have happened. This is boxing after all, the theatre of the unexpected.

Her next move is unclear. What could not be clearer is the fact she needs a rival who can bring the best out of her.

Would the aforementioned Ali have been as great and as revered without the Joe Frazier rivalry? Or the Rumble in the Jungle?

Would the Four Kings of Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns have reached the heights they did without each other? It’s extremely doubtful. 

Here’s hoping Shields can get the stage and the fights her talent deserves, because in the end the crowd doesn’t remember how many titles you won. They remember how you made them feel

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