Claressa Shields continues to make it look easy, on Saturday winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Lani Daniels at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit to defend her undisputed heavyweight championship.
Shields, of Flint, Michigan, started her night before an arena full of cheers, but the fight began slowly. Daniels, of Pipiwai, New Zealand, moved around the ring for the whole round, avoiding any engagement. Shields began to chase down Daniels, who continued to move but still wasn’t throwing punches or giving Shields anything to work with.
Shields was forced to make the fight, and so she did. At the end of the second round, she landed a flurry of punches when she caught Daniels on the ropes. She had more success in the third round as Daniels began to slow a bit.
Daniels landed an overhand right in the fourth round, but Shields’ punches had the greater impact. Shields was outworking Daniels by the midway point of the fight, landing a telling body shot that slowed Daniels at the end of the fifth. Shields started the sixth with two straight punches that landed, and she continued to target Daniels’ body. By the end of the round, Daniels was coming forward and no longer moving as she had early in the fight.
The fighters exchanged punches in the seventh, with Daniels standing right in front of Shields, who subsequently landed her most meaningful right hand of the fight – yet Daniels refused to go down. They exchanged punches in the eighth, with both landing. The once-uneventful fight began growing into a memorable showing for both.
Shields displayed her hand speed in Round 9, while Daniels continued to push forward. The two fought on the inside for the 10th round, capping off a performance by Shields in which she got a rare chance to show different elements of her style – while still winning comfortably on the scorecards, 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91.
Shields, 30, who remains boxing’s only three-division undisputed champion in history, improved to 17-0 (3 KOs). Daniels, 37, fell to 11-3-2 (1 KO).
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.
