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Claressa Shields has compared herself to Canelo Alvarez in her equal pay argument. Shields asserted that she’s accomplishing everything in her boxing career faster than Alvarez has.
The American professional boxing star, who’ll turn 26 later this month and will make her MMA debut later this year, has been quite vocal in her stance that male and female boxers ought to receive equal pay and equal opportunities.
Claressa Shields is the first American boxer, male or female, to bag two consecutive medals at the Olympics. Shields won gold in the middleweight division at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Additionally, since transitioning from amateur boxing to the world of professional boxing, Claressa Shields has continued impressing one and all. Shields is a three-division world champion – having held titles at light middleweight, middleweight, and super middleweight as a professional boxer.
On an edition of the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast, Claressa Shields opened up on myriad topics. Among these topics was Shields' campaign against sexism in boxing. Claressa Shields was questioned whether she feels that being vocal about unequal pay in professional boxing may cost her some opportunities. In response to this, Shields stated:
“Yeah, but also too I feel like God will set up something to where I will have bigger opportunities in it. And from the way it is looking, me being as vocal as I’ve been, has gotten me 350,000 for a purse,” Claressa Shields said, alluding to her receiving a $350,000 paycheck for a fight.
Claressa Shields continued, “You know, me bringing this stuff to their attention has actually gotten me further than me just kind of sitting back and kind of letting them give me whatever they give me, and be like, ‘Oh, yeah. I just need to accept it because I’m making more than the next girl or I’m making more than my counterparts’. It’s like 350K is a lot, but is 350K a lot compared to a man who’s making 36 million to fight?”
“And I have more accomplishments. And just the fighter I want to compare myself to is Canelo Alvarez. And, yeah, people are going to go in an uproar about this, but Canelo Alvarez doesn’t have even one gold medal. I have two. So, now we go to the professional leagues – I’m a three-time division world champion (three-division world champion) in ten fights. Canelo just became a four-time division world champion (four-division world champion) in, I believe, I don’t know, his 46th (professional boxing bout). Or maybe he’s 42-0. And it’s like, I’m doing everything faster than him. I’m taking the risk. And still, I have to yell and tell people all the time – Equal rights. Equal pay. Equal TV time. Equal opportunity.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
Claressa Shields opined that the level of competition she’s faced in her professional boxing career and how early in her career she faced the said competition is much higher and earlier than that of Canelo Alvarez.
Additionally, Claressa Shields explained that instead of the 10 two-minute rounds that are commonplace in women’s professional boxing matches, female boxers ought to be allowed to compete for 12 three-minute rounds like their male counterparts.
Furthermore, Claressa Shields reiterated this later in the podcast. She pointed out that if the reason behind women being paid less in boxing is that they fight for lesser time than men, it’d make sense for women to be allowed to compete for just as long as men do. Shields insinuated that this, in turn, would justify paying female boxers the same as male boxers.
Claressa Shields and Canelo Alvarez are heralded among the best combat sports athletes in the world today
Claressa Shields made her professional boxing debut in 2016 and is 11-0 (2 KOs) in her career thus far. On the other hand, Canelo Alvarez made his professional boxing debut in 2005 and is 55-1-2 (37 KOs; 2 draws) in his career thus far. The sole loss of Alvarez’s career came by way of a majority decision against one of the greatest pugilists of all time, Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Claressa Shields defeated Marie-Eve Dicaire via unanimous decision, with scores of 100-90 on all three judges' scorecards on March 5th, 2021. Shields defended her WBC and WBO female light middleweight titles, and won the IBF, vacant WBA (Super), and The Ring female light middleweight titles.
Meanwhile, Canelo Alvarez, the 30-year-old Mexican boxing megastar, will be fighting Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th, 2021. Alvarez will be defending the Defending WBA (Super), WBC, and The Ring super middleweight titles. And he’ll be looking to win the WBO super middleweight title.
