By: Raymundo Dioses
“I worked real hard in the gym, I trained, I ate right, I went to sleep on time, I was real focused… I blocked all negativity. Getting the knockout gave me joy,” said Claressa Shields following her TKO win over Nikki Adler for the International Boxing Federation’s vacant super middleweight title.
Shields, (4-0, 2KO) dominated throughout the contest and displayed dominance in the speed and power departments, finally stopping Adler at 1:34 of round five via referee stoppage.
“In the first round, I didn’t have any nerves or was nervous. I was ready for a war, and dominate, and knock her out,” said the Detroit native of her opponent. Shields landed 136 total punches, while Adler reportedly landed only six punches the entire fight.
“She wouldn’t punch,” Shields said. “I thought she’d be tougher. I thought after I knocked her back, she’d be more aggressive, but she just came in and I must have hurt her real bad because she stopped punching and I was able to dominate after I hurt her in the first round.”
Shields now finds herself the unified super middleweight champion (IBF, WBC) after only four professional fights in a career that started on the undercard of the first Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev fight card for the IBF’s light heavyweight title on November 19, 2016. Shields is a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner in the middleweight division and is 22 years of age.