Claressa Shields shares a little more in common with Tom Gores than the Pistons jersey she took home from Friday’s Palace season-opening domination of Orlando. They’ve both risen to the pinnacle in their chosen fields – the Pistons owner one of the most globally successful private equity entrepreneurs and Shields an Olympic gold medal boxer – and both trace their roots to Flint.
Shields, who makes her pro boxing debut Nov. 19 in Las Vegas, hopes to use her platform as a boxing champion to help her hometown just as Gores has. In addition to pledging $10 million to the FlintNOW for short-term relief and long-term economic recovery, the Pistons owner partnered with Huntington Bank on a $25 million economic development plan to revitalize his hometown.
Shields, whose smile and drive made her one of the Olympics’ incandescent stars, hopes to do similar good work to brighten Flint’s future.
“I always bring light to Flint because I’m from there, so the more successful I am, the more people will think about Flint,” Shields said. “I always tell people to go to Bottles for the Babies, the GoFundMe page, and to give money there for water. I tell everybody to send bottles of water to Flint, because everybody still is using bottled water to wash, cook and clean with.”
Shields became the only American boxer, male or female, to ever defend a gold medal when she won her weight division in Brazil this summer. The 21-year-old will fight as part of the Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev undercard against an as-yet undetermined opponent – probably because nobody’s especially to fight the woman who has so completely dominated the field in the only two Olympics that featured women’s boxing.
“We’re still working on it,” she said. “Couple girls turned us down. I’m going to have that problem. I kind of expected it, though, so it’s not too much of a disappointment.”
While the Ward-Kovalev bout requires purchase via pay per view to watch, Shields’ fight will be available for free on most cable or satellite systems. She’ll fight four two-minute rounds, just as in the Olympics, as a middleweight.
Shields grew up a Pistons fan, she said, mainly due to the influence of her grandmother, who loved the Bad Boys when they toppled Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics in the late ’80s.
“My granny was a true Pistons fan, especially when they took it the Celtics,” Shields smiled. “My granny was a true Pistons fan, so I was a Pistons fan also. Favorite player – Ben Wallace.”
Yup, that seems just right.