Ringside Boxing Show: Claressa Shields whooped the boys, dodged bullets & drug dealers, rose to the top of women’s boxing

Only six fighters in boxing history have held all four major world title belts — WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF — at the same time, and one of them is Claressa Shields, the undefeated, undisputed women’s middleweight champ.

Shields also is the only American in history to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in boxing (2012 and 2016), capping an amateur career during which she went 77-1.

The 24-year-old superstar joins us this week to talk about whooping boys asses in street fights, avoiding the drug scene and gun play as a kid in one of America’s most-violent cities, the legendary Flint, Mich. underground street fighter who is her father, her electric rise to the top of the boxing world, and what lies ahead in a division where worthy opponents are becoming more scarce with every victory.

This is a lively, animated, and deadly honest interview from one of the most-fascinating personalities in the sport.

Our in-depth interview with Claressa Shields is preceded by a conversation with our expert analysts about Devin Haney’s brutal KO victory, Bob Arum’s optimism that he can make Spence-Crawford happen in the fall, what happens in Lomachenko-Campbell, Prograis-Taylor, Inoue-Donaire, and Joshua-Ruiz, and whether Paulie Malignaggi has lost his friggin’ mind as he hypes a bare-knuckle fight with an MMA fighter.

Dennis Taylor is host of The Ringside Boxing Show, editor/publisher of www.ringsideboxingshow.com, and co-author (with John J. Raspanti) of “Intimate Warfare: The True Story of the Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward Boxing Trilogy,” an Amazon bestseller.