There comes a point in the career of every truly dominant boxer when winning is no longer enough.
Claressa Shields may have reached that point.
Shields returned to middleweight in Atlanta and stopped Kaye Scott in the sixth round to regain the WBA and WBC world titles, producing yet another performance in which the difference in class became increasingly obvious.
The result itself was impressive. Perhaps more impressive was how Shields achieved it.
After campaigning at heavyweight, Shields reportedly dropped around 38lb during a 14-week training camp to return to the 160lb middleweight limit. Yet there was little evidence that the dramatic change had taken away the qualities that have made her so difficult to beat.
The speed remained. The combinations remained. The confidence certainly remained.
Scott eventually found herself overwhelmed, with her corner throwing in the towel during the sixth round as Shields moved to 19-0 as a professional.
But another dominant Claressa Shields victory raises a question that has become increasingly difficult to ignore.
What is actually left for her to prove?
Claressa Shields Has Almost Completed Boxing
It sounds ridiculous, but look at the CV.
Two Olympic gold medals.
World championships across five weight divisions.
Undisputed champion in three different divisions.
Unbeaten as a professional.
Victories over the likes of Savannah Marshall, Christina Hammer, Hanna Gabriels, Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Marie-Eve Dicaire.
Shields has spent much of her professional career collecting belts at a rate that would sound unrealistic if somebody wrote it into a boxing film.
Her victory over Scott simply added another achievement.
Moving from heavyweight all the way back down to middleweight is not normal. Doing it and immediately looking like the clearly superior fighter against a reigning unified champion is even less normal.
That is the problem.
Claressa Shields has become so accustomed to making difficult things look straightforward that we have almost stopped treating them as difficult.
Dominance Can Eventually Become a Problem
Boxing careers are often defined by adversity.
Muhammad Ali needed Joe Frazier.
Sugar Ray Leonard needed Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran.
Katie Taylor’s rivalry with Amanda Serrano became an enormous part of both women’s legacies.
Even Shields herself benefited enormously from having Savannah Marshall.
Marshall had something almost nobody else could claim: she had beaten Shields.
Yes, it happened in the amateurs, but that history gave their professional meeting something different. There was genuine intrigue. There was a reason to wonder whether Marshall possessed something that other opponents did not.
Shields answered the question emphatically.
Now we are back in familiar territory.
It isn’t disrespectful to Kaye Scott to say that Saturday eventually became another demonstration of the gulf between Shields and her opposition. Scott entered with world titles, but once the fight settled into its rhythm, it became increasingly difficult to imagine Shields losing.
That creates a strange problem.
The better Claressa Shields becomes, the harder it is to find opponents capable of adding anything meaningful to her legacy.
Lauren Price Might Be the Most Interesting Answer
There is at least one potential fight which immediately stands out.
Lauren Price.
Shields mentioned the unbeaten Welshwoman after defeating Scott, and that is the direction I would much rather see than Shields simply continuing to collect victories against opponents we never realistically expect to beat her.
Price brings something different.
She is an Olympic gold medallist herself, unbeaten as a professional and has already established herself at world level. More importantly, she has the technical ability and pedigree to create genuine questions.
Could Price deal with Shields’ aggression?
Could her movement frustrate Shields?
Would moving up in weight prove too much?
Those are interesting questions.
And that is exactly what Claressa Shields needs now.
Not another belt for the collection.
Not another statistic.
Questions.
A Shields-Price fight would also have obvious appeal on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly after Shields’ previous success against Marshall in Britain.
Whether Price could actually beat Shields is another matter entirely.
But at least you could construct an argument for how she might trouble her.
At this stage, that matters.
Being Great Is Different From Being the Greatest
There is another element to all of this which I have discussed previously on CMBoxing.
Shields calls herself the GWOAT — the Greatest Woman Of All Time.
I’ve never particularly agreed that the argument is as simple as Shields sometimes makes it sound.
Nothing about the Scott victory changes my position.
Shields is unquestionably one of the greatest female boxers we have ever seen. Her achievements are extraordinary, and becoming undisputed across three divisions puts her in territory nobody else in women’s boxing has occupied.
But greatness isn’t decided purely by counting belts.
Katie Taylor helped transform women’s professional boxing while producing historic fights against Amanda Serrano.
Amanda Serrano became a seven-division world champion.
Laila Ali retired unbeaten.
Cecilia Brækhus produced an extraordinary championship reign.
There are different ways of measuring greatness, and that is why I don’t think Shields simply gets to announce the debate is over.
Ironically, though, her biggest problem in strengthening that GWOAT argument might now be her own ability.
She needs opponents capable of pushing her.
What Would Another Ten Dominant Wins Really Change?
This is where Claressa Shields finds herself in an unusual position.
Imagine she fights another ten times.
Imagine she wins all ten comfortably.
She’s 29-0.
There are probably several more belts sitting somewhere in her house.
But would we actually think substantially more of her than we do today?
I’m not sure we would.
That is why opponent selection becomes so important from here.
Shields doesn’t necessarily need more fights. She needs fights which mean something.
Perhaps that is Lauren Price.
Perhaps Tammara Thibeault develops into the necessary challenger.
Perhaps Mikaela Mayer becomes commercially attractive enough to justify the size difference.
Perhaps Savannah Marshall eventually returns for another chapter.
But there needs to be jeopardy somewhere.
There needs to be a night when boxing fans sit down genuinely uncertain whether Claressa Shields is going to win.
Because those are the nights upon which the very greatest careers are built.
Claressa Shields Has Earned This Problem
None of this should be interpreted as criticism of Shields for being too good.
Quite the opposite.
This is a problem she has created through excellence.
Claressa Shields has systematically removed most of the questions surrounding her career.
Can she become world champion?
Yes.
Can she become undisputed?
Yes.
Can she do it in multiple divisions?
Yes.
Can she avenge the only defeat of her amateur career?
Yes.
Can she move all the way to heavyweight?
Yes.
Can she then lose an enormous amount of weight, return to middleweight and immediately become champion again?
Apparently, yes.
There aren’t many boxes left unchecked.
And maybe that is the real significance of what happened against Kaye Scott.
It wasn’t simply another Claressa Shields victory.
It was another reminder that the biggest challenge facing Shields might no longer be the woman standing in the opposite corner.
It might be finding something she hasn’t already accomplished.
Where Does Claressa Shields Go From Here?
Lauren Price would be my preferred direction because it gives Shields something increasingly rare: a fresh challenge against an unbeaten Olympic champion with genuine technical pedigree.
But even that leads us back to the same fascinating question.
What happens if Shields dominates her too?
At 31, Claressa Shields potentially has years remaining at the highest level. Physically, she can continue. Commercially, she remains one of the biggest names in women’s boxing.
Legacy is different.
Her place in boxing history is already secure.
The challenge now isn’t adding more world titles to an already ridiculous collection.
It is finding opponents and occasions capable of telling us something about Claressa Shields that we don’t already know.
And those may prove much harder to find than another championship belt.
Have Your Say – Is Anyone Left Who Can Truly Test Shields?
Has Claressa Shields become so dominant that women’s boxing is running out of meaningful challenges for her? Would Lauren Price provide the test Shields now needs, should Savannah Marshall eventually get another opportunity, or is there somebody else capable of genuinely threatening her unbeaten record?
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