CLARESSA SHIELDS
Claressa Shields is the only American boxer in history to win back-to-back–as in consecutive-–Olympic gold medals (2012; 2016).
Male or female.
She is also the only boxer ever–male or female–to hold all four major world titles.
WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO–simultaneously, in two weight classes.
Now she’s a mixed martial artist.
She wants to be the GWOAT (and is, albeit in a self-proclaimed fashion).
Not just in the ring or the octagon.
In the universe.
I wouldn’t bet against her.
The Flint, MI. native grew up tough.
Drama and trauma across the board.
Mental health issues.
Now 26, she may be in many ways, the most accomplished boxer in the recent past, but she insists that she “is not an angry black woman.”
Say what you will, but I wouldn’t want to fight her on my best day.
That’s just me.
“I can’t remember exactly when I put on some gloves for the first time, but I know I wanted to start boxing at 11.”
Sources tell me that when she was nine, her 8-year-old sister punched her in the nose and beat her up.
That may have been all it took, in a twisting cyclone of terror.
Bingo!
Get punched in the smoosh squarely enough, at such a young age, and the axis of the earth shifts.
Especially when the world around you leaves so much to be desired.
Has to.
That’s what happened here.
“And I remember the first time I sparred and got inside the ring.
That’s when I knew that boxing is what I want to do in my life.
I wanted to fight–and defeat–my competitor inside of the ring.
But no matter the challenger, I’ve always faced my biggest opponent outside of the ring.
Dealing with the sexual abuse I suffered as a child and having to deal with my mom as a kid as she struggled with alcohol abuse–that’s my biggest obstacle.”
So, she turned to boxing.
Great move.
And with precious little–if any–guidance.
A gift from God, that she was able to choose that path.
And stay with it.
Kept her from being on the wrong end of a gun or a needle.
The fact that she demonstrated innate talent inside the ropes, and cultivated it, was gravy.
“Growing up I didn’t know how to express myself or deal with how I was feeling, which led to anger.
At 26 years old, I’m just now being able to control my anger and deal with some of the trauma that still lives there from when I was sexually abused when I was 5 years old.
And dealing with my mom–growing up and coping with her alcohol abuse left me with some abandonment issues.
It takes you wanting to be a better person and seeking help to become better.
I’m really applauding myself and any other woman who can live through those traumas and then go and get help, prioritizing mental health first and foremost.”
Well said.
She further expounds.
“Right now, mental health is in the spotlight in sports.”
(Think Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Love…).
“In our African American communities, somehow, they built this stigma that there’s something wrong with going to get mental help.
But everybody needs therapy.
Everybody needs somebody to talk to, to vent to.”
100% correct.
This woman is wise, way beyond her years.
“I feel a certain responsibility to pass on what I learned, not only as a celebrity, as an athlete, but also as a Black woman.
I’m always telling people: ‘Look, it’s O.K. to go and get help.’
I have four best friends who are females. And we all have therapists.
We all go to therapy.
And even though we’re all at different stages in our lives, we all just try to be there for each other and let each other know that it’s O.K. that if we’re dealing with depression to go and get help, to speak with somebody, and to not let it overwhelm us to where we want to cause harm to ourselves or to others.
To a point where we want to just go into a dark closet.”
She truly gets it.
“So I’m always trying to preach to people: ‘Be the best you…It’s about you…And if you feel like something is wrong with you, fix it. Work on it.
But don’t be letting people always judge you all the time and make you feel down about yourself.’
Once you have that level of clarity, it brings you some peace.”
Shields boxed at first to prove to herself that she could do it.
To prove to everybody that a woman could do it.
And to prove that she had a voice.
Which would be heard.
“…Boxing is fun for me…
MMA is fun to me…
Learning is fun to me…
And I don’t do any of this because I’m an angry Black woman–I am not an angry Black woman.
I’m a self-made, accomplished Black woman from Flint, Michigan, who dug her way out of the dirt to become successful.
That’s my story.”
And she’s stickin’ to it.
Two points:
#1–Thank God for the headgear which protects her very large and highly-functioning brain; and
#2–I would never want to make her angry.
But that’s just me.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in March 2022.]
