Claressa ShieldsGregory Shamus/Getty Images
The odds pretty much tell the story with this one. The biggest narratives surrounding this fight read more like a celebration of Claressa Shields and her talent then an actual prizefight.
Perkins has a 5-0 professional record, but hasn’t seen anything close to what she’ll see on Sunday night. Shields isn’t considered the top pound-for-pound fighter in women’s boxing for nothing.
Shields has breezed through multiple weight classes while balancing an MMA career. The scary thing for the rest of women’s boxing is that Shields might actually be better as she continues to fight heavier opponents.
“I’m way more comfortable fighting at heavyweight than I am at 154 pounds,” Shields said, per Josh Peter of USA Today. “I always felt very, very strong there (at 168 pounds). Even though I wasn’t getting the knockouts, I was still beating girls up pretty bad. … But I’ve seen a huge difference in my power from when I fought at 154 and now that I’m fighting at heavyweight.”
The one criticism that you can throw at Shields is that she doesn’t have a high knockout rate. To this point 12 of her 15 professional wins have come by decision. Granted, most of them are lopsided decisions.
However, her heavyweight title fight against Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse was a second-round TKO victory for Shields. It was her first time moving up after fighting a lot of her career at 154 pounds.
There is a little bit of uncharted territory in this matchup. Perkins weiged in at 177.2 pounds and will have a height, reach and weight advnatge over the champion. That being said, it’s still highly unlikely Perkins turns this into a fight.
The 42-year-old hasn’t seen anything remotely like she will see on Sunday night. Shields’ physical tools and skills are easily enough to cover for any size discrepancy between the two combatants.
Expect Shields to establish herself as the much better fighter early and get to work on showing that she can finish fights when she doesn’t have to drain herself on the scale.
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