On Sunday night, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, undisputed heavyweight champion Claressa Shields defeated unified 168-pound champion Franchón Crews-Dezurn by unanimous decision in a rematch of their fight from 2016.
All three judges scored the fight 100-90.
There was a huge buildup to this fight, especially during fight week, which included a brawl at the weigh-in that almost caused the fight to be cancelled after Crews-Dezurn, who will retain her titles at 168 pounds, reportedly suffered an injury.
Also, there was a lot of trash talk on social media by both fighters. However, when they finally got to the ring, it was clear that Shields(18-0, 3 KO’s) was the better than Crews-Dezurn(10-3, 2 KO’s).
At the beginning of the fight, the 38-year-old Crews-Dezurn rushed Shields, and the two were slugging out, but it was clear that the 30-year-old Shields had the faster hands, and those faster hands were tagging Crews-Dezurn, but to her credit, she kept coming.
According to CompuBox, “The GWOAT” outlanded Crews-Dezurn(226-106), and the Flint, Mi native outlanded her opponent in every round.
“I haven’t seen a fight that exciting in women’s boxing in a very long time, and I haven’t been in one where a girl could rumble like that,” Shields said after the win. “I know the scorecards was 90 to 100, but I think she got me two rounds.”
The best part of the fight was the end, when both fighters, who had a lot of bad things to say about each other, talked and made amends, which was beautiful to see.
These two fighters had a lot of history together, including making their pro debuts against each other nearly 10 years ago in Las Vegas.
In the end, Shields was better at that point and is better now.
What’s Next?
Shields called out unified 168-pound champion Shadasia Green after the fight, which would be interesting to see.
At this stage, Shields is a huge draw in Detroit, and she had 17,000-plus fans on Sunday night.
Will Green go to Detroit to fight Shields? We’ll see, but the fight would do big numbers there.
Also, she called out unified 154-pound champion Mikaela Mayer, which would be an intriguing fight.
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