Female stars Mikaela Mayer and Claressa Shields both crave the big fights, the name fights. And now, as she said when speaking with Sky Sports, Mayer, the current WBO welterweight champion, believes a fight between herself and Claressa Shields, the reigning unified women’s heavyweight champion, can happen.
But how, with the weight disparity? Mayer, who was actually team-mates with Shields when they both boxed in the 2016 Olympics, said that if Shields can get down to 154 pounds then the fight could be made.
Mayer says “I want the bigger fights,” calls on Shields to come down
“I’m not super big, now that I’ve settled into welterweight but I could go to 154 pounds for the right fights,” Mayer said. “I don’t want the easy path just to have more accolades. That’s not really what I’ve been about. I want the bigger fights with the names. Fights that people are interested in seeing. If Claressa gets down to 154, I think that’s something that we’ve both discussed making happen.”
Mayer, though, added how she is not going to “hold her breath” waiting on Shields, and that if the self-proclaimed “GWOAT” opts to stay at heavyweight then that’s fine. But Mayer did also say that the longer Shields fights as a heavyweight the harder it will be for her to drop back down if she ever does feel like doing so.
A real challenge – or another Shields domination?
But from a fan perspective, we’d love to see Shields and Mayer fight, this instead of seeing Shields win in pretty easy fashion as she faces far less talented fighters at heavyweight, where the talent pool as far as female fighters go is quite shallow.
It would be a real test for Shields if she did agree to fight Mayer, and maybe both ladies would bring out the best in each other. Shields has never lost a pro fight, while Mayer has been beaten only twice and she has never been stopped.
Who wins and how if Mayer and Shields do fight at 154?