SAN ANTONIO—Alejandra Jimenez stole a page out of the playbook of Claressa Shields, and now would love nothing more than to take the titles from around her waist.
The former heavyweight champion from Mexico City became a two-division titlist the hard way, scoring a disputed split decision win over Franchon Crews-Dezurn in their unified super middleweight title fight Saturday evening. The chief support at The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas saw furious action for all 10 rounds, with Jimenez prevailing on two of the three scorecards.
The win came a full 70 pounds below her heaviest weight, and more than 140 pounds lighter than the heaviest she’s ever been in her life. Coming down from heavyweight to light heavyweight and now to super middleweight, the 5’11” slugger is now hell bent on shedding even more weight in adding a third divisional title around her waist.
“I want to fight Claressa Shields next,” Jimenez (13-0-1, 9KOs) insisted after the hard-fought win, in which she won by scores of 98-92 and 97-93 in overcoming a 97-93 card in favor of Crews-Dezurn. “I want to fight her at middleweight, I want to win the middleweight championship next.”
Shields (10-0, 2KOs) made “herstory” by becoming a three-division titlist following a 10-round virtual shutout of Ivana Habazin in their two-belt 154-pound title fight Friday evening in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A decision will have be made ahead of her next fight, as Shields serves as the undisputed middleweight champion, all of which followed her brief stay as a super middleweight titlist.
Jimenez campaigned at heavyweight to start her career, taking a 10-round decision over countrywoman Martha Salazar in her 6th pro fight in March 2016 where she weighed 225 pounds. The now 32-year old unified super middleweight titlist fought as heavy as 236 ½ pounds before making her way down in weight. The 164 ½ pounds she weighed on Saturday marks her career-lightest—though apparently with room to shed another five pounds if it means a showdown with the pound-for-pound queen.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox