Claressa Shields has the medals and the belts. Laila Ali has the name.
Shields’ decorated resume and Ali’s legendary name have placed them on opposite sides of a noisy debate, a trash-talking confrontation that Laila’s famous father mastered during a heavyweight reign remembered for Muhammad Ali’s fast hands and faster words.
Shiields says her three division belts and two Olympic gold medals make her the GWOAT (Greatest Woman of All Time). No way, says the daughter of the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).
Laila Ali, now 42, is quick to remind Shields, 24, that she was unbeaten. She went 24-0, scoring 21 knockouts, as a super middleweight between 1999 and 2007. Shields, also unbeaten, has two knockouts in 10 fights.
“First of all, she could never beat me,’’ Ali said late last week on Sway in the Morning, a Sirius XM show featuring talk on music and culture. “Let me get that really straight right now. Not simply because she’s not strong enough, because I would definitely knock her out, because she’s not talented enough.
“You’re talented. You can box. You can throw those hard punches. But there’s a sweet science to boxing. The reason you have not been able to knock out the opponents that you have faced, I can totally see it.”
Shields, never shy, seized on the opportunity to respond, telling TMZ Sunday that Ali built her record against “soccer moms and probably strippers.’’
Shields suggested that women’s boxing has changed. She said she faces real fighters.
“Let’s just keep it honest,’’ said Shields, who defeated Ivana Habazin by a unanimous decision to win a junior middleweight title on Jan. 10. “Don’t say that I’m not talented, because I’m the most talented female fighter there has been in the history of boxing. Laila Ali is all bark, no bite. If a girl call me out, I answer.’’
Shields also urged Laila Ali to make a comeback. Their respective nicknames, “T-Rex” and “She Bee Stingin’”, might look good on a fight poster.
“We can make it happen if she really wants to make it happen,” Shields said.
Shields said the winner would get $10 million and the loser $5 million. But it’s not clear where that money would come from.