Claressa Shields (born March 17, 1995) is an American professional boxer. He has held the WBC middleweight title since 2019. As of October 2020, he is ranked as the world's sixth best active lightweight by The Ring magazine, sixth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and ninth by BoxRec.
Shields started boxing at the age of seven. He became a 15-time national amateur champion and amassed an amateur record of 215-15.
Shields turned professional on June 9, 2016. In his first professional bout, he fought against Edgar Meza in Tijuana, winning the match by TKO. Shields soon signed with Golden Boy Promotions in November 2016. Oscar De La Hoya announced Shields would make his debut on December 17, 2016 on the Smith-Hopkins light-heavyweight main event at The Forum. Shields won the fight by knockout in the second round.
In September 2019, Shields extended his contract to a new five-year deal with Golden Boy. Specific details of the multi-year deal were not disclosed.
Marie-Eve Dicaire, MBE (born 27 September 1987) is a British professional boxer who has twice challenged for lightweight world titles; the WBA and The Ring titles in 2017; and the WBA, WBO, The Ring and vacant WBC titles in 2019. At regional level he held the WBC Silver and Commonwealth lightweight titles from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur, Dicaire won gold at the 2008 European Championships, silver at the 2011 World Championships, and gold at the 2012 Olympics, all in the bantamweight division.
As of September 2020, Dicaire is ranked as the world's fifth best active lightweight by The Ring[2] and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and eighth by BoxRec.
Dicaire's first professional fight took place on 13 July 2013 at Craven Park in his home city of Hull. His opponent was Andy Harris who he beat in the first round. Dicaire continued his undefeated start to his career with a fifth-round stoppage of Lee Connelly in Hull on 2 November 2013. In his fifth professional bout Dicaire carried on his undefeated record and became the first person to stop Scott Moises.
In April 2014, Dicaire announced that he would be taking a break from boxing, pulling out of his next scheduled bout, following his father being diagnosed with cancer.
Despite announcing he would be taking a break from boxing, Dicaire fought a further four times in 2014. A points win over Craig Woodruff, a knockout win of Steve Trumble, a technical knockout (TKO) victory over Krzysztof Szot and another TKO win over Daniel Eduardo Brizuela. In March 2015, Dicaire faced off against 24 year old Nicaraguan Levis Morales (11–1–1, 4 KOs) at the Ice Arena in Hull. Dicaire knocked down Morales in round two and three, before the referee Howard John Foster stopped the fight resulting in a TKO victory for Dicaire.
On 1 August, Dicaire claimed the vacant WBC International lightweight title by defeating fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle (21–2, 10 KOs) via ten-round TKO at the KC Lightstream Stadium. This was also a WBC lightweight eliminator. Coyle was knocked down once in round two following a left to the body and three times in round twelve before the referee waved off the fight.[20] Only four months later in December, Dicaire lost the title and mandatory status in a split decision loss to French boxer Yvan Mendy (32–4–1, 16 KOs) at The O2 Arena in London on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte. Dicaire was floored for the first time in his professional career in a ragged defensive display as Mendy received a split decision with scores of 115–112, 115–113, while the third judge scored it 115–113 for Dicaire.
After a three-month lay off, Dicaire started a comeback trail in March on the undercard of Brook-Bizier at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, fighting British boxer Gary Sykes (28–4, 6 KOs) for the vacant Commonwealth lightweight title. Dicaire made a winning return to the ring in spectacular fashion only needing two rounds to finish Sykes off in his first fight since losing his unbeaten professional record. A left hook that landed hard on the top of Sykes' head had him struggling before a straight right put him down. Although Sykes beat the count, Dicaire was all over him. It was the left-hook that opened the door again, this time in the midsection, followed by a right to the temple. Referee Steve Gray moved swiftly in as Sykes' corner was throwing their towel to halt the fight.
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed Dicaire was next due to fight on 30 July 2016 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds for the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title against 30 year old former IBF junior-lightweight champion Argenis Mendez (23–4–1, 12 KOs).[24] Although being floored by a sharp right hand in the second round, Dicaire proved to be too quick and dominated the remainder of the fight to claim the vacant WBC Silver lightweight title. From the third round, it became a comfortable fight for Dicaire who moved his opponent around the ring and caught him with a succession of punches. The scorecards were all in favour of Dicaire 116–111, 117–110, 115–112, who stated he would now like to land a world title shot.