Claressa Shields has officially relinquished her WBO light heavyweight title while opting to retain her heavyweight championship. The decision comes as WBO regulations prohibit champions from holding titles in multiple weight divisions simultaneously.
“Claressa Shields has relinquished her WBO light heavyweight title,” WBO President Gustavo Olivieri announced on social media. “Per our rules, no WBO Champion may hold titles in two different weight divisions simultaneously. Therefore, Shields remains the champion in the heavyweight division.”
Shields secured the undisputed heavyweight crown on February 2 with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Danielle Perkins, knocking her down in the final round. The win cemented her as the first female boxer to achieve undisputed status in three weight classes—middleweight, light middleweight, and now heavyweight. Fighting in front of a packed hometown crowd at the Dort Financial Centre in Flint, Michigan, Shields overcame a torn labrum suffered in training to extend her unbeaten record to 16-0 (3 KOs).
“It feels unbelievable,” Shields told Reuters. “I had a really hard training camp. I tore my labrum in my left shoulder last Friday, so I wasn’t able to use my good jab today. But I didn’t want to call the fight off because I had asked God to give me a big fight in my hometown, and He did that. So I decided to go through with it.”
However, Shields’ victory has been overshadowed by a failed drug test. The Michigan Athletic Commission reported that she tested positive for marijuana in a post-fight mouth swab. Shields and her team insist she has never used marijuana and believe the result may have come from secondhand smoke in the arena. She has since appealed the suspension, and the head of the Association of Boxing Commissions has criticized the Michigan commission’s handling of the matter.
Despite the controversy, Shields’ legacy remains intact as one of the greatest female fighters in boxing history, continuing to break barriers in the sport.