This weekend sees double Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields of Flint, Michigan return to action.
Following turning pro in 2016 she is also already a professional world champion (8-0-2KO) at the age of 24 years old.
When you put into perspective that she’s won two Olympic (women’s boxing only got into the Olympics in 2012) gold medals and become world champion at such a young age, it’s quite the feat all things considering.
Fighters like Shields and her opponent Christina Hammer along with a whole bunch of new talented female athletes who have burst onto the scene in recent years have shown that women’s boxing is just like any top level boxing match at the highest level.
In that the bouts can be extremely exciting and skill full.
You only need to watch a Shields or Katie Taylor fight just once over the last couple of years to see that.
Their fights typically are non stop action from bell to bell and are all out wars.
Better than much of the men’s action you’d see on TV a lot of the time in fairness.
But women continue to fight for higher pay in boxing and speaking to AB Boxing News Shields feels that if she wins what many regard as the biggest women’s title fight of all time this weekend — then her pay should start to be matched accordingly:
“I think it’s only right that I get paid like a professional undisputed world champion (after winning on Saturday). If I was a male and I was fighting for an undisputed world championship in nine fights I’d have security guards and you probably wouldn’t be able to talk to me.”
She added:
“It should be looked at as fair (fighter pay). If Gervonta Davis can come back after a year long layoff and fight for a million dollars I don’t know why the hell I can’t. I’ve got triple the belts, about to have five belts now in only nine fights. I don’t see why I can’t fight for a million dollars.”
Shields takes on Hammer this Saturday night for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world at the Boardwalk in Atlantic City live on Showtime.
