Scott tried to compete rather than merely survive, but that increasingly gave Shields opportunities to attack. The difference in hand speed became particularly damaging whenever Shields put combinations together instead of looking for single power shots.
By the sixth, Scott was taking increasingly clean punches.
Shields landed a hard left hook that badly hurt her and drove her toward the ropes. With Scott in serious trouble and Shields continuing her attack, the fight was stopped before the Australian champion absorbed unnecessary punishment.
The knockout was significant because stoppages have never been a major part of Shields’ professional game. She entered with only three in 18 fights despite dominating opponents across several divisions.
Scott was an opponent Shields was supposed to beat, however, and the result shouldn’t disguise the enormous difference in experience between them. Scott had only seven professional fights before Saturday and was making her first defense of the WBA and WBC belts.
That made this less of a test for Shields than an opportunity to reclaim championship hardware in a division she had already conquered. The larger issue is what comes next.
Shields has won championships from super middleweight through heavyweight, leaving very few realistic opponents capable of creating genuine uncertainty. Moving back down to middleweight provides more names, but finding someone with the combination of size, skill and experience to seriously threaten her remains difficult.
That competitive shortage has followed Shields throughout much of her career. She can change divisions, collect belts and continue adding accomplishments, but none of that automatically produces an opponent capable of pushing her. Scott wasn’t that fighter.
She had enough toughness to remain in the contest through five rounds, but once Shields increased the pressure in the sixth, the difference became overwhelming. The stoppage gave Shields her fourth professional knockout and another pair of world titles.
Claressa accomplished exactly what she was supposed to accomplish in Atlanta. The harder job will be finding an opponent who can make her next fight feel less predictable before the opening bell.
The shortage of compelling opposition becomes harder to overlook when examining the ages of Shields’ recent opponents. Her last four have been 42, 38, 39 and 42 years old, an average of just over 40. Shields is only 31. That doesn’t mean those opponents were incapable fighters, but it does illustrate the difficulty of finding prime-age opposition with the credentials and ability to seriously threaten her.
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