Claressa Shields puts friendship aside to dominate her sport

The first time Claressa Shields and Maricela Cornejo went head to head, they starred together in a YouTube video.

When it hit the internet in 2019, Shields was already a two-time Olympic gold medalist with several professional titles, including the undisputed middleweight championship. Cornejo was a seven-year veteran, but still building an online brand that spanned boxing, fashion, fitness and self-help.

Their conversation, that appeared on Cornejo’s YouTube channel, was about boxing, of course, but also about the two women’s shared history as childhood sexual assault survivors. The interview showed both women as vulnerable, tender, supportive and sisterly; professional colleagues with good friends.

On Saturday, Shields and Cornejo meet in Detroit as opponents, with Shields’ undisputed middleweight title on the line. The pairing highlights the tight-knit world of elite women’s boxing, where bitter rivalries abound but where boxers can be each other’s friends, fans, training partners and opponents, often in fairly rapid succession.

“If someone wants to get in the ring and fight for my titles, I’ll put all that friendship aside,” said Shields, who is 13-0 with two knockouts. “This is prize fighting. It’s not a friend fight.”

The Shields-Cornejo title fight, which will be a card at Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit, is the highest-profile women’s fight of early 2023 and a follow-up to the blockbuster events that propelled women’s boxing into the limelight last year.

Last April, Madison Square Garden sold out at a lightweight title fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Taylor won a decision in a raucous brawl that drew 1.5 million viewers to streaming platform DAZN, which will also air Saturday’s fight. Six months later in October 2022, Shields defeated Savannah Marshall in a high stakes, high octane title fight in London. Two million viewers reportedly watched that fight.

The organizers of both events claim that each was the richest match in women’s boxing history, and most years both matches would stand alone as the most important women’s match on the schedule. They had big names, packed arenas, competitive action and, not coincidentally, sustained promotion leading to fight night.

This weekend’s fight between Shields and Cornejo is different.

Cornejo, who is 16-5 with six knockouts, committed to the fight early last week after Shields’ original opponent, Hanna Gabriels of Costa Rica, failed a drug test.

Even with a new opponent and a short runway, Shields promoter Dmitriy Salita credits Detroit as one of the reasons this fight could draw fans. Putting Shields, who grew up in Flint, Michigan, on top of a card in the new arena in Detroit also fits her right into the city’s boxing tradition, he said.

“This is not a city where there is no boxing history. This is one of the richest boxing histories in the world,” said Salita. “The pressure she’s under and the doors she opens, every fight is a super fight for her.”

Sugar Ray Robinson spent his childhood in Detroit and Joe Louis made the city his home base. In March 1980, three months after the opening of the Joe Louis Arena, Hilmer Kenty, the first world champion from the famous Kronk Gym in Detroit, defended his lightweight title there. Kronk’s most famous product, Thomas Hearns, nicknamed the Hitman, fought in the cofeature on the same card.

Shields, 28, comes in Saturday as one of boxing’s most dominant competitors, regardless of gender. She rarely loses rounds and has only lost two official fights in her life. As an amateur at 17, she dropped a contentious decision to Marshall leading up to the 2012 Olympics, and in October 2021 lost a mixed martial arts bout to Abigail Montes in the Professional Fighters League.

But as a professional boxer, Shields has won world titles in three weight divisions and has been the undisputed champion at 154 and 160 pounds. She has beaten so many champions that she has started looking for rematches with boxers she has outclassed.

Her fight against Gabriels in 2018 ended in a lopsided win. Salita said that if Shields wins on Saturday, she may face the winner of an upcoming fight between Marshall and Franchón Crews-Dezurn, both of whom Shields has already overcome.

The quest for a tough challenge spans sports — Shields hopes to return to mixed martial arts later this year — and every boxing division, from 147-pound welterweight to 168-pound super middleweight.

“I watch them all, just in case they want to make that leap,” Shields said.

Saturday’s card falls midway through a busy period for high-level professional boxing. Earlier this spring, Gervonta Davis defeated Ryan Garcia by 136 pounds, while Devin Haney squeaked past Vasiliy Lomachenko to remain the undisputed lightweight champion.

Later this summer, Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton and Japan’s Naoya Inoue will meet in a super-bantamweight title fight that thrills boxing purists. And on July 29, the long-delayed meeting between welterweight champions Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford scheduled in Las Vegas.

For her part, Shields would match Gabriels again, when the Costa Rican contender tested positive for a steroid, clostebol. Gabriels said she accidentally ingested the substance, claiming it was an ingredient in an ointment she rubbed on her dog to help him heal from surgery.

Anyway, she was scratched and replaced by Cornejo, who was already training for another fight.

Cornejo, 36, recently moved from Seattle to Las Vegas, where she works with celebrity trainer Ismael Salas. She and Shields have one common opponent, Crews-Dezurn, who has beaten Cornejo twice.

But Cornejo starts Saturday on a three-win win streak and, after working with Salas, renewed confidence in her skills and tactics. She has a healthy regard for Shields, but remains focused on upsetting her.

“She knows I respect her, and she respects me,” Cornejo said. “But if we get into a fight, it’s either you or me, honey.”