She became the first American boxer, male or female, to defend an Olympic title in boxing.
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Claressa Shields was golden for the second straight Olympic Games. After settling in for the first minute of the contest, she began opening up in the second half of the round. Fontijn flicked the left jab from the outside and used lateral movement to stay away from Shields’ devastating power.
Claressa Shields took out her medal from 2012 during her award ceremony Sunday. Shields jogged back to her corner after the second round with a two-point lead at the midway point of the contest. “I don’t know”, she said, smiling.
Mossely won lightweight gold on her 24th birthday on Friday.
Her two golds are two more than any other US boxer has won since 2004. “It calmed me down a lot and gave me discipline and structure”. “I worked so hard to get here”. Its margin of 51 total medals over second-place China is the largest in a nonboycotted Olympics in almost a century. “I can not believe I just did this”.
“That’s what I want to do for those kids who grew up in my home city of Flint or grew up in towns anything like it – Chicago, Memphis – anywhere they come up somewhere rough or they have bad parents”.
“Because I remember that when I was once one of those kids I didn’t have any hope and when I got just a little bit, look how far I’ve been able to come”, added Shields.
Climbing out of the ring after the announcement, she ran around the arena with the US flag held aloft before wrapping it around her.
China won 26 golds, just over half as many as it won in 2008. Who knows if I’ll be here in 2020? “If not kill me, they will put me in prison”.
“You have to go in there and seal the deal”, she said.
The victory, in a rematch of the middleweight final at May’s world championships in Astana, lifted Shields’ amateur record to 77-1 and sealed a fourth consecutive global title for the 21-year-old from Flint, Michigan. I’m just ready to have a break. “I want to go home”.
“The last round was like, “Hey, you want to fight, you think you can beat me, okay let’s go”. I don’t really know what I’m going to do. “Your life is your decisions and I chose to be great”.
“This is for all of Uzbekistan, it is an Independence Day gift to the people who have supported me”, said an emotional Gaibnazarov.
Claressa Shields brought one gold medal to the ring with her and left with two hanging around her neck after retaining her Olympic middleweight title and making US boxing history on Sunday.
She sang along to the national anthem, then held up both gold medals for all to see.
All through the middleweight fight, the crowd cheered and Shield’s sister Briana shouted at her to “knock out” her opponent, Nouchka Fontjin of the Netherlands. He texts me, he calls me and he checks on me. “Please tell me I’m not dreaming”.
The victory lifted the United States’ total medal count to three after Nico Hernandez’s bronze at light flyweight and Shakur Stevenson’s silver at bantamweight, representing the Americans’ best overall haul since winning four at the Sydney Games – a testament to the program’s steady revival under Walsh.
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Later on Sunday, Shields was awarded the Val Barker trophy as the best overall boxer in the women’s tournament, becoming the sixth ever American victor and first since Roy Jones Jr at Seoul 1988.
