Claressa Shields defeats Danielle Perkins for heavyweight title

On By Littum

Flint – Claressa Shields made history and did it in her hometown.

In front of a violent, packed crowd at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, defeated Shields (16-0) Danielle Perkin’s (5-1) via unanimous decision to become the undisputed heavyweight master. The 10-round women’s heavyweight match exceeded “Super Brawl Sunday”, a short composed of Salita campaigns with shields along with a number of mighers from Michigan.

Perkins came out aggressive to open the main event, but Shields avoided deeply all early attacks and landed a handful of strokes in the opening of 10 planned rounds to get the amount saturated. It was at the end of Round 2 that the crowd really broke out when the 29-year-old shield pelted her 42-year-old challenges with a quick fire series on the head just before the clock. By the end of Round 3, it was a feeding madness as the crowd was on its feet to the hometown’s favorite. When Shields came close to knocking out Perkins, the crowd began to sing the hook to a classic R&B song Shields went out.

“Whoop that trick!” The audience was shouting repeatedly as Shields fired away against Perkins. Arena DJ played it over the speakers at the end of the round.

Perkins then held strong, held his distance to avoid big blows until another flurry of first -class strikes from shields at the end of round 7. Even the Perkins did not stop coming back. At Round 9, Perkins came back and landed some solid strikes on shields.

Both fighters emptied the thought in the last two minutes, and with only 15 seconds of matches back at night, Shields landed the battle that everyone will remember and lost Perkins. While the official result was a unanimous decision, the fight was past the point of Perkins who fell to the mat.

Shields faced Perkins for the undisputed woman’s heavyweight world title. Being the best heavyweight fighter in the world is an honor that has sometimes belonged to some of the most iconic and famous characters of the sport, from Jack Dempsey to Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali. This is the first time an American has officially had this distinction of more than 30 years, and Shields is the first woman to hold the honor.

And with a chance to further cement her status as one of the best living fighters on earth, Shields gave her hometown fans a show in her showdown with Perkins, a former basketball player turning to boxing.

Shields specifically chose flint, her hometown, to be the landscape of Sunday’s match night despite the ability to bring the show almost everywhere on earth. Instead of New York or Las Vegas, Shields would show flint.

A city strengthened by the automotive industry through large parts of the 20th century – General Motors was founded in 1908 – The story of flint early in the 21st century was one of economic downturns and decay, after the decline of the US automotive industry, hit hard At the 2008 recession before the notorious water crisis that began in 2014, the flint’s drinking water contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.

More than a decade later, it is difficult to measure, completely to what extent flint has recovered and continues to develop.

“We had requests from some of the most prestigious match towns and venues in the country to host Claressa’s match there,” said Dmitriy Salita, leader of Salita campaigns, leading into the match. “But it was Claressa’s decision to come home literally for the biggest fight of her career. “

Sunday night, no matter what progress has been made and all the unrealized gains that were still on the table, there was reason to celebrate. And a quantity at the Dort Financial Center, which was steadily larger and more violent when the night carried on, was treated with a captivating night with matches led into the main event, including a number of Michigan and flint -natives.

All in all, Michigan fighters went 4-0 at night.

Early in the evening, Flint Native Leon Lawson III won a TKO win over Christopher Thompson, with the match stopped in the fourth round. Lawson appeared to be on the brink of a knockout as Thompson winged early in the fourth round, and his corner withdrew from the match.

And maybe the best match of the night was the easy fight between Joshua James Pagan from Grand Rapids, against Ronal Ron. None of the fighter seemed to be keen to protect himself, instead of choosing to get close and act flurries of punches on the head and body. Early on, it seemed that Ron might work his way to a win, but Pagan did enough for the judges to win via unanimous decision and remain undefeated.

After Pagan, colleague was Grand Rapids fighter Joseph Hicks, who ended up beating Keon Papillion via TKO in round seven. Hicks quickly made its striking advantage over the less papillion clear. And if Papillion had not been able to move as well as he had done, it is possible that Hicks would have brought him to the ropes and put a capper on the match before than his seventh round barrier. After the match was called, Hicks went over to the ropes and climbed a few steps to raise the amount.

And with each entrance, Blow landed and wins for the local warriors, the crowd became more and more geed up.

When Shields and Perkins took the ring, a fever height was achieved. Even a sub-time that is underway from the co-main event between heavyweights, Brandon Moore and Skylar Lacy could not tamp the tension as the amount booed the lack of punching.

Plus it helped as Lacy took Moore physically out of the ring, resulting in a disqualification and victory for Moore.

Then it was time for Shields to make her entrance. After Perkins’ slow walk into the ring, Shields took even more time and milked the moment in front of her hometown as their cheer and the pumped bass -beamed senses. There was a smoke show, drum liner and shields went out with R&B recording artist Papoose – he and Shields are apparently a topic – which rapped a few of his tunes as she talked through the crowd.

When she got to the ring, Shields climbed the stairs, and before she entered the rope, turned to the crowd and lifted both gloved fists to a last, triumphant cheer from this crowd.

Then Shields stepped out of his corner and created history.

Full match results

Claressa Shields (16-0) def. Danielle Perkins (5-1), via unanimous decision

Brandon Moore (17-1) def. Skylar Lacy (8-1-2) via incompatibility in round 8

Joseph Hicks (12-0) def. Keon Papillion (10-1-1), via TKO in Round 7

Joshua James Pagan (12-0) def. Ronal Ron (16-8), via unanimous decision

Caroline Veyre (9-1) def. Carmen Vargas (5-3-1), via unanimous decision

Ashleyann Lozada (1-0) def. Denise Moran (3-1), via unanimous decision

Leon Lawson III (17-1) def. Christopher Thompson (9-3) via TKO/Retirement in Round 4

Samantha Worthington (11-0) def. Vaida Masiokaite (10-27-6) via unanimous decision

Pryce Taylor (6-0) def. Jerell Nettles (4-11) via TKO in Round 2.

Andrew Graham is a freelance author.