Boxing: From Olympic Trials to $8 Million Deal – Claressa Shields’ full moment in Franchon Cruz-Desern fight

Six months before the 2012 Olympics, American Claressa Shields took her first step on the path to greatness.

When she was just 16 years old, Shields beat national champion Franchon Cruz DeZorn, who was eight years her senior, in the U.S. Olympic qualifiers.

Shields would go on to win gold at the London Games and pick up two more victories over Crews-Dezurn in the amateur ranks.

A fourth straight win followed when they met on their professional debut in 2016 – and the pair are set to reignite their rivalry on Saturday when Shields defends her undisputed heavyweight status.

“Franchon and I have always said that for some reason we are always intertwined in each other’s lives,” Shields told BBC Sport.

“If you go back to when I was 16, I was ranked No. 1 in the country and I was No. 7 and the people who were ranked lower had to pull out and you’ll tell you who we were fighting against – I pulled out number one.

“Now we meet again in the first battle of my grand deal.”

The major multi-fight deal Shields talked about was signed with Wynn Records and Salita Promotions in November.

He is worth $8m (£6.1m) and also comes with an additional sign-on bonus of $3m (£2.2m).

Those are unheard of numbers in women’s boxing, but Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, five-weight world champion and undisputed three-weight champion, is no stranger to raising the bar.

“I’ve never heard of a guy getting that kind of signing bonus. I’ve heard of guys getting a $1 million (£739,000) signing bonus but never $3 million,” Shields said.

“I’d like to ask ChatGPT, Did a guy get a $3 million signing bonus for a boxing contract?”

“My contract now is big overall and I’ll get my salary back. When I came out of the Olympics with two gold medals, I should have gotten a $1 million signing bonus for whoever I went with but that didn’t happen.”

“Now it’s been years but I’ve got it all back. I’ve been able to make millions over the past few years.”