Claressa Shields takes center stage on women’s boxing’s biggest night
The double Olympic champion headlines the biggest women’s boxing match in a generation against Christina Hammer on Saturday night
It’s just before midday as Claressa Shields enters the second-floor banquet room in Gallagher’s Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan. The two-times Olympic gold medalist from the embattled Michigan city of Flint is fielding the last of her promotional obligations ahead of the fight that could propel her star, and women’s boxing, to new heights. Saturday can’t arrive fast enough.
Shields, who’s captured three of the major world titles at 160lbs in the last year, and Christina Hammer, the German émigrée from Kazakhstan who has owned the fourth for nearly a decade, will meet on Saturday night to unify the belts and determine an undisputed middleweight champion at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.