(CNN)If you haven’t seen enough of boxer Claressa Shields — or if you may not even know the name — that’s her point. She’s an elite athlete in her prime, suffering from an apparent case of under-exposure.
The 25-year-old Michigan native had a glittering amateur career, winning Olympic gold medals — at London 2012 and Rio 2016 –and two more golds at the International Boxing Association world championships.
Shields then made her professional debut in 2016, winning her first title in 2017, at super middleweight, and — by 2019 — she had become the undisputed women’s middleweight world champion, winning all four of the main belts: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO.
In her 10th professional fight, January 2020, she defeated Ivana Habazin to claim two world titles at light middleweight, becoming a world champion in three different weight classes faster than any boxer in history, male or female.
But the undefeated Shields hasn’t fought since.
“I know that we have Covid and everything,” she recently told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies. “But boxing had been back going since about September … they told me they were going to have a fight for me in September. They had a date for me in October.
“And then to be told that I got to get put on a back burner to all the men, and I’m not going to be able to fight until 2021, in January or February, you know? And this is with the network that I was associated with, Showtime.”
Source: Claressa Shields takes jab at boxing over coverage, treatment of female fighters
