Though Claressa Shields may be a beast inside the ring, it seems she’s no chump outside of it either—especially when it comes to her apparently longstanding beef with fellow boxing champion Laila Ali. And things may have just gotten more serious.
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For context, the issues between the two allegedly stem from a pair of interviews Ali did on “The Breakfast Club” and “Sway’s Universe” back in 2012 in which she said that she hadn’t observed anything in the boxing world that inspired her enough to un-retire and come back to the sport. Upon hearing those words, Shields reportedly took offense to it—especially considering she’d just made history that same year by becoming the first American woman to win gold medal in boxing. She also subsequently began questioning Ali’s legacy and her impact in the sport thus resulting in their “beef.”
However, in a recent interview with “All the Smoke Fight,” Ali is pushing back on any sort of issues between her and Shields.
“I don’t have any hard feelings against Claressa in general, because I got a lot going on over here, you already know, to be worried about any of these young girls like that,” Ali said. “But at the same time, I see that she gets into it with a lot of people.”
Ali went on to say how Shields isn’t going to get that far in life if she keeps “burning bridges” and that she should “stay humble” and know that other people can and will surpass her.
Well, much like back in 2012, Ali’s words didn’t land well with Shields yet again and she took to YouTube to get it off her chest.
“I’ve been come to terms that she’s jealous,” Shields expressed. “Now, I got the biopic. I got the fight coming up. She act like I owe her something, it’s weird,” Shields said in part before later adding:
I’m trying to figure out why when it comes to me, here she comes. Today she really offended me. She said burning bridges and if I keep burning bridges, I won’t get very far. I’ve gotten further in my career and in my life than Laila Ali… She wanna come and give this big sister advice… but I’ve already made it further than you… and I’m going to keep making it further than you.
“This is my era now, and she has never supported me in my era,” Shields concluded.
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