You’re the G.W.O.A.T. (greatest woman of all time) for a reason,” she told Claressa Shields on Saturday night.
This exchange came nearly an hour after Shields defeated Cornejo by unanimous decision at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit to retain her undisputed middleweight championship in front of 11,784 people. A night decades in the making lived up to the hype with a 10-round main event that saw the hometown fans go home happy with a victory from the Flint native.
“I felt so overwhelmed,” Shields said afterward. “When they started cheering, I felt the whole building shaking. I was catching chills. … I just felt so proud to be from Flint, so proud to be here in Detroit, and just say that I did it. I didn’t know many fans were here, but when I looked around, I was like, ‘Golly, it’s so many people here.’
Saturday marked the first boxing event at Little Caesars Arena, which opened in 2017. Shields’ business manager Mark Taffet said the event outsold Shields’ last fight, a high-stakes redemption match at the O2 Arena in London against longtime archrival Savannah Marshall.
“I know how much money we generated at the gate in Flint (against Marie Eve Dicaire in 2021). I know how much money was truly generated in the UK (against Marshall),” Taffet said.
“And tonight, we are at least 2½ times the amount of money at the live gate than those other fights generated, particularly the Marshall fight. … We priced this like you would a Las Vegas championship fight. … We knew that for the premium seats, we were going to command the money, and it happened.”
Taffet added, “I saw it with Floyd Mayweather. I saw it with Manny Pacquiao. I saw it with Oscar De La Hoya. Tonight was Claressa Shields’ breakout night,” Taffet said.
Shields (14-0, 2 KOs), a two-time Olympic gold medalist who’s held 13 world titles as a pro, had a ton of success with the right hook. Though Shields is traditionally a more technical boxer, she was hoping to knock Cornejo (16-6, 6 KOs) out. Cornejo, who took the fight on short notice after Shields’ original opponent, Hanna Gabriels, failed a drug test last week, put forth an admirable effort despite losing every round, according to the judges’ scorecards.
Judges scored the fight 100-89, 100-90, 100-90 in favor of Shields.
“She got a big right hand that I kinda had to be a little skeptical about. … She wasn’t just a last-minute replacement, somebody I could just walk through, and she showed that,” Shields said. “She endured a lot throughout the fight and so did I, and we put on a great fight for women’s boxing.
“I don’t know many girls who can stand up to the punches that I landed on her. … The punches I landed tonight, if I was supposed to land those same punches on Savannah Marshall, Savannah Marshall would be asleep. I’m working on turning my punches and putting the power on them, and I think I did a good job of that tonight. I just think Maricela was very smart and she was tough as hell.”
Shields, still just 28 years old, said she’s weighing her career options before deciding on what’s next. Shields in 2021 debuted in the octagon as a mixed-martial artist. She defeated Brittney Elkin in her first Professional Fighters League (PFL) fight, but lost to Abigail Montes in October 2021, and hasn’t fought MMA since.
