Conventional wisdom is that a young, prime Claressa Shields would be too much for a 42-year-old who hasn’t fought in 13 years. Laila Ali has at least one person in her corner, though: former opponent Christy Martin.
Martin believes that Ali not only would beat Shields if they were to fight, she would do it easily. Ali stopped Martin in four rounds in 2003.
“I think Laila smokes her,” Martin told RingTV.com. “It takes her now six or seven rounds whereas back when she fought me it would probably take her the same amount of time that she got rid of me. At least that fast, if not faster,”
Of course, we might never know how that fight would play out. Shields and Ali, now a television personality, have expressed interest in fighting one another but evidently it would take a fortune to lure Ali out of retirement.
And for the record: Shields and Martin have not been on the best of terms. They’ve exchanged unfriendly posts on social media, which apparently started when Martin questioned Shields’ contention that she’s the greatest woman boxer of all time.
In fact, Martin doesn’t believe that Shields is even the best woman boxer today. She thinks lightweight titleholder Katie Taylor is No. 1.
“Even though Katie Taylor’s been in a lot of close, controversial fights, maybe she’s the most solid skilled fighter,” Martin said. “She’s in a weight class where there are other very skilled competitive fighters, much like in the ’90s, when between 135 and 147 there was a s–tload of really good women’s fighters. That’s kind of where she is right now.
“She’s there where there’s more talent that will push her which in the long run will make her better. I know there’s still a lot of controversy about [the Delfine Persoon fight] in The Garden. It was very close but I think she’s solid. I like her.”
Martin was recently selected to be part of the first class of women boxers in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.