Claressa Shields

Claressa Maria Shields (born March 17, 1995) is an American professional boxer and former professional mixed martial artist. She has held 18 major world championships spanning five weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title in March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title twice between 2019 and 2024; the World Boxing Council (WBC) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018; the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female light heavyweight title from 2024 to 2025 and the undisputed female heavyweight title since February 2025. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two, three, four and five division world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of August 12, 2025, she is ranked the world's best active female light heavyweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.

Shields is the only female boxer in history to have held all four major world titles—WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO—in three weight classes. She is also the third female boxer, after Amanda Serrano and Naoko Fujioka, to become a champion in five different divisions. The Boxing Writers Association of America named her Female Fighter of the Year in 2018 and 2022. In July 2024, ESPN ranked her as the best female boxer of the 21st century.

In a decorated amateur career, Shields won gold medals in the women's middleweight division at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, making her the first American boxer to win consecutive Olympic medals. Shields was the youngest boxer at the February 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, winning the event in the 165 lb (75 kg) middleweight division. In May, she qualified for the 2012 Games, the first year in which women's boxing was an Olympic event, and went on to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing.

Shields was also a former professional mixed martial artist, competing in the Professional Fighters League.