The only thing stranger than the idea of Claressa Shields giving Hanna Gabriels a rematch because Gabriels knocked her out in a fight five years ago is why that rematch won’t happen now.
According to Gabriels promoter Lou DiBella, “Her dog underwent a major surgery in the abdominal area. She put medicine on her dog and that’s how it got into her bloodstream.” Of course, he’s talking about a performance-enhancing drug – this time clostebol – that popped up in one of Gabriels’ pre-match drug tests and thus rendered her unequal rematch with Shields failed.
That might not have been such a bad thing for Gabriels and Shields, who, after all, overcame the old framework to give the Costa Rican a second chance. In a perfect world, Gabriels would have to do a lot more to earn a hit on Shields, the world middleweight champion, than just knocking her out on the path to a crushing defeat and then in the Five years later, an easy win over three newcomers. However, because worthy opponents for Shields are few and far between, and because Gabriels has at least done to Shields what no one else has (taken her down), the fact that Gabriels, now 40, once again being given Shields is her chance to overturn the apple cart and take away many of Shields’ belts.
This is not the fault of the boxers themselves; they can only fight those placed in front of them and can only try to do a lot with a little at the moment. Ultimately, women’s boxing will grow and the talent pool will increase. It’s just that for now we have to be tolerant and try to make peace with the fact that there will be mismatches and there will be ridiculous “world title” fights and there will be, as shown on Saturday This week (June 3) in Detroit, there will be games like Shields vs. Maricela Cornejo does little to stir the imagination.
Claressa Shields (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
Better than Shields to Gabriel only in that Cornejo was a clean fighter, this substitution match, like the one it replaced, actually Shields wasn’t good at all. Firstly, it has nothing to do with her legacy, which you could argue is established, and second, it has little to do with her progress as a martial artist. doctor.
That’s not to say Cornejo, 36, isn’t a likely and unlikely challenger to trouble Shields this weekend. She won 16 of her 21 professional fights and came in at 5’10, meaning she’s 2 inches taller than Shields and has a 4-inch reach advantage to boot. But the problem for Cornejo, aside from her being in this fight for so short a time, is that we’ve seen her find her way back to her level in previous matches against favored women. she. For example, her first WBC middleweight title match ended in a loss to Kali Reis (SD 10) in 2016. Two years later, she lost another WBC title fight, this time in super middleweight, against Franchon Crews Dezurn (MD 10), whom Shields defeated on her professional debut. Not content with that, Dezurn even defeated Cornejo again in 2019, the second time receiving a unanimous decision.
Since then, Cornejo, 16-5 (6), has only lost once to Alma Ibarra (UD 8) in 2021, but it’s hard to see what she’s done – other than saying “yes” – to justify winning one more world shot title. Indeed, in the three games she has had since Ibarra, Cornejo has played against the women 2-2, 17-19 and 0-1.
Again, this is not a matter for Cornejo or Shields to be responsible. Rather, it is a broader problem and one that will only be resolved with time and the growing list of competitors. For now, much of the frustration discussing this particular battle between Shields and Cornejo stems from the fact that Shields was last seen beating Savannah Marshall in stellar form last October. We were convinced it was a breakout night, for both Shields and women’s boxing in general. It was, in theory, an equal battle of champions, good enough to go up against anything on offer in the men’s game at the time.
Now, however, in many ways, it feels like Shields is drifting aside or simply regressing. Fighting Gabriels is the product of a lack of ideas and is an undeniable case of going back to the original square, while here, against Cornejo, Shields at least has a new face and a new face. new problem to solve, no matter how big or small. The end problem is for her.
At 28, with a lot of goodwill and momentum after that great performance against Marshall, Shields, 13-0 (2), needs better than this and also worthy better than this. One can only hope that once she gets Cornejo out of her way, possibly through decision, she will once again be able to move forward instead of sideways.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, the team is unbeaten Holmes Jnr area13-0 (5), from Flint, Michigan vs Haiti Wendy Toussaint, 14-1(6), more than 10 innings in super-weapon. Holmes, a southern tennis player known as “The Boss,” is close to winning decisive wins over Ismael Villareal and Vernon Brown and is slowly stepping up the competition, while Toussaint, whose only loss is a match lost in the ninth round to Charles Conwell in 2020, the last to beat England’s Asinia Byfield in eight rounds in June 2022.
