The Moment Claressa Shields Knew She Won

In this episode, Ashlyn talks to the GWOAT herself: boxer Claressa Shields. Besides holding two Olympic gold medals, Claressa is the only boxer in history to hold all four major world boxing titles in three weight classes. But growing up in Flint, Michigan, all odds were against her success. Claressa tells Ashlyn how she persevered, a story so moving that it was turned into the 2024 film, The Fire Inside.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Wide Open with
Ashland Harris. I am here with Clarissa Shields, the one
and only incredible boxer who is paving the way for
women in your sport in this country. Welcome to the show.
You have accomplished so much I cannot wait to dive
into it.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited to see
what you want to ask me.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh well, I am a long time follower of your career.
It has been absolutely incredible to see the success and
the attention you have brought to such an incredible sport.
I said this before you got here. If I could
pick any sport as someone who lived a beautiful career

(00:56):
in soccer, I would have definitely picked boxing. I mean,
first off, you're insanely beautiful, So that just tells me
exactly how good you are at your craft, because you
ain't getting your face bashed in honey, you look flawless
as always.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
But you were the first to do so many things,
and I really want to talk about that because being
the first is so special, especially when it comes to
women in sports. In twenty twelve, you you went to
the London Olympics. It was the first time they had
women's boxing in the Olympic Games.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Correct, Yes, And I can't believe it's been so long ago.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
You were six Turkey, you was christ That is crazy,
and you won, and you won, and then you came
back and you say, not only am I gonna win,
I'm gonna win back to back and I'm going to
do something that's never been done before.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
And both of us were at the Rio Olympics. You
were such a force of nature. And what I hated
most is no one knew about it.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, you know what, I can say that at the
Olympic village, all the athletes knew about it. NBA players, yes,
a few NFL guys reached out, and all of US
Olympic athletes knew. But it was like they look at
sports so different in America. Oh gosh, you know, like
you have to have a certain look and have to

(02:24):
talk a certain way and have to be a certain way.
And then with women's boxing, there is no way to look.
I think I look fine as hell.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You look good, you look good.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
To others, I look aggressive and mean and powerful, right,
And I don't I think that the world back then,
and even some now, it's like they haven't really grasped
onto that yet. So for me, it was like, so
what do you do just because the just because the
world isn't ready for you, do you stop being as

(02:57):
great as you are? It was like, nah, I guess
you're going to be. And that's kind of how how
I've taken it. Like, you know, I'm just gonna continue
to win, continue to fight, continue to build my brand,
continue to show that. Look, I'm a beast in the ring,
but a beauty outside of the ring just kind of
just roll with the punches more than anything. And if

(03:18):
they don't give you what you want, you kind of
have to either create, create what you want or sometimes
you gotta kick the door down right how you do?

Speaker 1 (03:27):
But it's like how you do?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's like I don't know. I think I realized that
some rooms that are not in maybe those rooms don't
deserve to have me in them.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Absolutely. And you know what I love about you? You
always say stay true to you, yes and your roots,
and you won't compromise that for anything. And I can.
I can sit here as a woman who moved very
differently in her own sport, who looked very differently covered
in tattoos, queer woman. That is one thing I want sacrifice.

(03:59):
That is one boundary I'm not willing to give up
is to be what other people want me to be,
To sell my soul to the devil, I fucking won't
do it.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
No.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
You ever see all these celebrities, some of them are depressed, suicidal,
mad all the time, going crazy on social media. It's
because they're trying to please people who don't give a
shit about uh. They are trying to dress and talk
and be a certain way, and they're changing their whole
lives and then they're still not accepted.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
To fit in a box that doesn't exist, that does
not exist there you can preach, Amen, And I love
that so much about your story. There's no coincidence that
there has been a movie made about your life because
your story outside of your boxing, Because I do think

(04:55):
and this show Wide Open is so much more about
who we are than what we do. You are a
testament of that. Yes, your story, how you've made it
your power and your strength, and you have held on
to that for so many years. And you were such
a great icon at such an early age, and you

(05:16):
started boxing at eleven years old, And for anyone who
doesn't know to be exceptional at the level you were
at sixteen at an Olympics and only had five years
of training. That I mean, that just doesn't happen. No,
it does not happen. Like I was a prodigy in

(05:39):
my sport and I started at three, You started at eleven,
picked up a pair of boxing gloves and you were like, yep,
this is for me. I'm going to chase change the landscape. Yes,
and it's exactly what you did.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I believe that I was chosen to be a woman boxer.
M you know, I was chosen because a lot of
people when they talk about women's boxing, right, they say, oh,
that they've been discriminated against, and they were never accepted
and they were talked down upon. I never experienced that,
not in the amateurs and the amateurs when I when

(06:13):
when I was fighting, even up to the Olympics, men
were the most respectful to me, my my, my peers
and coaches. Everybody knew I was special. It just was
like when I turned pro it's when all the stuff
started changing. Now it's like women boxes aren't as good

(06:33):
as the men, and we don't make as much as
the men, and we don't get to fight on TV
and we don't get equal opportunity, we don't get five
pay per view, And I was like, okay, this is new.
That was the thing that kind of, you know, it
was a little shaky, but I but I came. But
when I turned pro, it wasn't a landscape. It wasn't

(06:55):
a blueprint. So how do you become a multi millionaire? Women?
And women's boxing wasn't a blueprint? No, even Leila Ali
wasn't able to crack the coat. So it was like
that got yeah, yeah, you know, and I have to
figure out how to do this? But how do you
do it?

Speaker 1 (07:09):
But it's it is an uphill battle because we are
told our whole life we are not enough, that we
aren't worthy of the same things that our male counterparts are.
And I can't imagine in a sport like boxing that
people are like, oh, you know, I watched the movie
The Fire Inside, and you know, I can't say how

(07:30):
accurate it was to what you went through, but I'm
pretty damn sure it's it's pretty close. But yeah, but
people to say, oh, this is too rough around the edges,
like these are two women getting, you know, in a
in a fistfight. And how are we supposed to bring
sponsorship and eyes to that. That's not pretty enough, that's

(07:51):
not delicate enough. We need very feminine attribute and sexiness
and the whole. I mean, we all get it, we
all get it. We're not enough, We're not this, We're
not that, We're not sexy enough, we don't fit. I
was never the girl next door. And I can't imagine
anyone in boxiness like that's you're not sitting, not mold,

(08:15):
you are showing what power looks like for your sport.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Power and passion. Yes, I think that that's where they
get this stuff wrong. Gas. It's like, look, my job
is my job. You can't expect the cook to go
in the kitchen and then he going there or she
going there with a nice outfit on, and then come
out and the outfit is nice and clean. He or
she is cooking. Yeah, it's flour involved.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
It's butter, grease, absolutely a lot.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Of stuff involved in cooking. So when it comes to
me being a woman boxer and me cooking inside the ring,
me cooking and camp, I got work. I can't come
in there looking like listen, if I wanted to, I
can have a nice slim slim, slim body, and I
can have a six pack all year round and I
can be very skinny and patigue. But for the sport

(09:03):
that I'm doing, it is required that I have muscles. Yes,
that I be strong and have stamina and have good
You have to be great in everything in box. You
have to have good, great IQ. You have to be
great mentally. You have to be stronger your legs, strong
in your back, stronger your neck. I got the biggest
traps I've ever seen in my life, you know, so

(09:24):
it's like like my my traps are bigger than some men.
I love it and it's cute to me. It's attractive
to me. But the other peop's like, oh, she's too strong,
and it's like, look, let me be beat, let me
be passionate about my job. But also no, outside of
the ring, it's a different mold of me. And I

(09:45):
think that when people haven't realized that you can't judge
a person off their job outside of the ring. I'm
still a human being and I'm a woman first, So
doing my job in order to beat these girls up
and you know, stay and stay under. You didn't stay undefeated.
This is what it requires. I'm not gonna be in
the ring with makeup on and lashes and lipstick. I'm sorry. Listen,

(10:08):
there are there are some girls who are badass enough
to wear lashes inside the ring.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
And you will knock them off.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I don't know what burns more a punch to the
face or getting that damn eyelash going y'a eyes. Oh
my god, I don't know what. That's so good. So
I'm like to be inside the ring knowing that punches
are gonna be coming at your face. And you guys
want me to smile, and you guys want me to
wear makeup and wear lashes and be cute inside the ring.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
It's not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's never gonna happen. I'm gonna braid my hair up.
I'm taking the edge crol, I'm taking the edge control off.
I'm taking the eyelashes off. No makeup at all. All
I got is bare face. That's something that's fighting here.
After every fight, I gotta ice my face for two days,
Oh my god, because it's poofy here. It's poofy there.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
You look great. You wouldn't know that's what happens when
you win.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I take great care of myself. But after the fight,
I tell everybody just leave me alone. Yeah yeah, let
me recover around. I just went through something. I mean,
I've made it look easy, but homegirl caught me with
a shot.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
I wouldn't know much about it. My extent is rumble boxing,
which I lasted. Okay, this is like Barry's class, but boxing. Okay,
I have to talk to you about that. I have
to talk to you about this. This very off This
is very off script. I'm gonna tell you this. I
retired three years ago now, and I said, fuck, what

(11:38):
am I gonna do with my time? But I want
to stay active, I want to stay hungry. And people
were like, you are too intense and too aggressive to
not take up boxing. So I got a trainer. Shout
out Lloyd. I got this trainer, I started boxing. I
was like, this is the hardest fucking thing I've ever done.
I can't go thirty seconds, like we're doing thirty second rounds.

(12:02):
So I said, okay, my body is not equipped for
this at retirement level, so we need to like pair it.
So I did thirty minutes hip hop dance and thirty
minutes boxing. So I did that for a long time
and I loved it, and it was so hard, and
I don't think people understand, Like I've done a lot

(12:23):
of hard shit in my life and I've played a
lot of sports. Boxing is a different beast.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah it's listen. I think people just underestimate just holding
your hands up to take the face it when your armitared.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Just want to just yeah, you want to put your
hands down, We'll.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Put your hands down in the fight. See what the
hell happens.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Well, that's in soccer. And you put your hands on
your knees when you need to take a break. You
gotta get that that air in them lungs.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
You can't do that.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
The boxing is a.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Stress reliever, right and without without me having boxing, I
don't know who I would be, honestly, because from my
upbringing and my childhood I had so much anger and
so many things bothered me growing up, and I also
dealt with sexual abuse and then having abandiment issues dealing
with my parents. So it was just like when I

(13:11):
found boxing, it just helped me channel that channel that anger.
And when I channel my anger, even I channel my anger.
Now I learned myself. I learned that running makes me
feel good, punching the bag makes me feel good. People
think that I like getting hitting boxing. I don't boxing
getting punched. It does not make me feel good.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, I can't.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Actually it actually feel disrespected when someone punches me. But
punching somebody makes me feel good.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
And just when you give yourself small goals and you
accomplish them, it's the best feeling ever. And there are
things in boxing that I wasn't able to do when
I was seventeen twenty twenty one. Now I'm turning thirty
next month. It's like I can do stuff that I
couldn't do when I was younger, and I can do
it now. You know, run am mouth and sick thirty.

(14:01):
You know what I'm saying. Like that that type of
stuff I wasn't doing when I was in when I
was in amateur. Yeah, now I'll push my body to
certain limits and I'm keeping and I keep a track
of times. I mean, I could throw one hundred jabs
in one minute. Stuff like this is like constantly building.
Like I can bench one hundred and eighty five pounds.
I wasn't able to bench one hundred and nothing when

(14:22):
I was seventeen twenty one, twenty five. Your baby, right,
so now I'm like, look, I'm coming to my women woman, right.
I can binge on eighty five, I can squat three hundred.
I can do fifty five push up, six sixty push
ups in a row. I think that by.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
If we work out together, I need that type of
I need. I need that.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
When I get in a gym, I just kind of just.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Go, I need to work. You're in New York. I
need I need to be in that gym with you.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
I need the whole path for you. I want to
see what you're working with.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Okay, I'll tell you what. We are very very similar.
I got a lot of anger in these bones, and
I need to let it out. I need to let
it out.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
I'm telling you don't let it out with me because
i'mna get job.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
But you're gonna hit me once and I'm not gonna
light Okay, don't you hit me, my money maker.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Honey, make you slip and stuff. Okay, I'm not going.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
I would never pick up a box and pair of
boxing gloves if I got hit by you, I probably
wouldn't get up off the floor. So we can't be
doing that. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna hit but
I'll tell you what. You know what you know what
the greatest thing is anyone who spends five minutes with you.
You were such a light, You were such a joy.
You bring so much energy into everything you do, and

(15:34):
I adore how you show up in the world because
you know you've gone through which you just kind of
hinted towards. You've gone through so much shit that most
people in a lifetime don't understand that kind of struggle.
And what I respect the most about you, not all

(15:55):
the winds, not all the things, all the groundbreaking things
you've accomplished, is your ability to share the struggle. Because
there are so many women out there who have suffered
at the hands of sexual abuse, have suffered, you know,
a lot of hardship growing up and felt like they

(16:16):
the only opportunity they had was to be a statistic
and you were showing them that's not the case. You
were showing them what is possible and the ability to
be this little girl from Flint, to be able to
share your scars to say this isn't me being a victim,

(16:40):
this is powering me to be victorious.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yes, well, I could just start by saying that it
wasn't always easy to talk about what I went through
as far as we're not the sexual abuse and being
raped at five, and the abandonment and how we were
used to be hungry all the time growing up. It
wasn't easy to talk about, so I didn't talk about

(17:04):
it for a long time. But what it does is now,
you know, I'm seventeen, I'm getting ready to go to
the Olympics. I'm getting interviewed, and everybody's like so like,
they're so curious about where did you come from? Because
you're so different, You're so strong, you fight with so
much aggression, Like where did it come from? And I

(17:24):
used to always just keep it short, like I had
a tough upbringing. But I'm here now, you know. And
I tried to just put it off in the back
of my head because it was hurtful to talk about
talk about how angry I was and how hungry I was,
and how boxing was the only thing that I had
that was going to change my life and if I

(17:44):
wasn't great at it, what I was.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Gonna do There was no backup plan, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
So I started speaking about what I went through because
the load, because the secret just got too heavy to
keep hiding it, you know, I said, I got tired
of people questioning me and trying to People want their answers,
right yeah, and if you can keep giving them an answer,
they're like, okay, well what else? How was it grown up?

(18:10):
How with your parents? How's this? How's that? And I
remember my first boxing coach, Jason telling me, Jason Crutchfield,
he told me, he said, rest you need to tell
your story because he knew about it. And I said
why And he said, because your story's going to change

(18:30):
the lives of many girls who are going through It's
going to give them the strength to, you know, to
be something. And he said you I said, well, I
don't want nobody feeling sorry for me, you know. And
and growing up as a kid when I when I
first had told my mom what happened to me, she
didn't believe me, you know, So I had I stayed

(18:51):
with my grandmother from the age of five till I
was ten, and so that they're built up a kind
of a it was like a shell for me, like,
you know what, just don't just don't talk about it
and don't bring it up, because if your mom didn't
believe you, then who else is going to believe you, you know.
So I kind of dealt with that and that's why
I never want to talk about it. But he said, no,

(19:13):
you need to get off your chest, you know, let
the world know so they can understand you more as
a as a woman, as a person. And so I
start talking about it, and you know, people don't ever
get to get the story right. But I started talking
about it and a lot of girls reached out to
me saying, thank you. You know, I appreciate you for
speaking out. I just I just told on my uncle

(19:33):
who's been doing it to me. I just told on
my mom's boyfriend who's been doing like I just went
and got justice for this. And you know, I finally
told the big family secret that was, you know, and
I remember telling them, See, when something bad happens to us, right,
we all want to kind of sometime. You want to

(19:54):
live in that. You make it be like the biggest
thing ever. And I tell people, like, the the best
thing you can do is show your abuser that he
didn't win. And how do you show your abuse or
that you bet? You bet you become something you don't.
You don't blame him or her for what they did
to you. And that's why you're so angry. You hate people.

(20:14):
You didn't become nothing. You wasn't inspired, you wasn't motivated.
It was like, no, don't let them win. Don't don't
let them feel like what they did to you is
going to alter your entire life. And when I decided
to let people know about what happened to me, I
wanted them to know. I don't want you to feel

(20:36):
sorry for me. What makes my story so great is
that I went through all this stuff and then I
actually came out on top, not like halfway on top,
but like number one in the world on top, you know,
and did it for a long for for longevity.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
And you're still doing that, still doing it right now.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
So I'm like, for me, I just wanted to let
let let let people know you can still win, just
when just because something happened to you doesn't mean that
you have to be You don't have to be your circumstances.
Oh I love that, And I just love empowering women
to know that, like you don't don't don't let your

(21:17):
abuse to win. Let them a I know every time
I want to fight, every time when I want a
gold medal, every time I made the newspaper article.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
He's seen its power, and it has to make your
power back.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
There you go. It had to make him feel like crap.
You raped a five year old girl, a child, and
you're a grown man, and this child you you tried
to break her mentally and physically. You took her innocence.
And I went through stuff. I went through stuff I

(21:55):
went through where I didn't trust men, where I didn't
trust people. I didn't want nobody touching me. If I
was sleeping, somebody came try and wake me up, I'm
jumping because I'm so because I'm so scared. So I
went through all of that, and even in my adult
years to where I just don't trust people like that
and I'm very protective over kids. So to go through

(22:17):
that and then he thinks that, oh, he's gonna make
me be Oh he thought I'm gonna be angry or
just let him just control my whole life and not
be anything I decided to give to just be great.
And I feel like it makes him feel like crap
every time every time I do something else big on
every TV show, every interview, every when he's sitting there

(22:41):
and he's like, dang, I just could not break her.
He should feel like crap.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
This is wide open and I'm your host, Ashlyn Harris.
Thanks for listening. We'll be right back. There's no coincidence.
I don't want to get this wrong. You are the
only boxer in history to hold all four major world
titles in boxing in three weight classes after your last

(23:11):
win in February. I will say this, I have no
understanding of what your experience is and what you went through.
I admire your strength and your perspective and what I

(23:31):
hate so much because a lot in my past people
have always thought, oh, you're too competitive or too rough
around the edges, you're too angry, you have anger issues.
You have this, you have that. People have no idea
what people have walked through until you're in their shoes.

(23:53):
And what I always you know, in every interview, I
always said this was servile for me. There was no
plan B, there was no backup plan. And when I
read so much about the people who are so harsh
on the way you show up, they're women of color

(24:18):
and a position of privilege, which drives me nuts. And
the way you move is a circumstance of the life
you've lived, and no one will understand that, but you
and there is no second chance, There is no backup
plan there. You fight every fucking time you're in training

(24:42):
and against your opponent. You're fighting for survival. You're fighting
for that little five year old that people will never understand.
And how dare them have any criticism on the way
you show up and the way you hold yourself and
the way you are so unapologetic about the way you

(25:06):
move in this world? And good for you, because they
not enough women do it.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Not enough women do it. And you know what, none
of women love themselves, have learned to love themselves because
it's hard to love yourself when people have not loved
you correctly. So when you learn how to love yourself,
then you can love other people.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
So a lot of people who are giving us criticism
about how we show up is because they have never
shown up. They are still living in the shadows of
what happened to them, and they are angry and mad
and they want to make you feel like that, you know.
So for me, it's like I always I've been telling
myself this is the past few days. Focus on the positive,

(25:44):
Focus on the positive. It's so much, so many positive
things happening in my life, so many great things, and
sometimes I still get triggered by certain comments from people
who haven't accomplished it. Yeah, haven't done nothing. They don't
got no money. They just all they got to an
Instagram account or Facebook and they're just jealous. And I'm like,
you know what, don't let this person anger. You block them,

(26:08):
and going about to day, keep pushing block them, and
you know, I'm like, look, you got millions some followers.
Block them, they're just one. You get them out the way.
And so it's hard to do that. But a lot
of listen, a lot of these people who are who
are in power, and they're so judgmental. It's not nobody
placed in this world to judge nobody but God. It

(26:28):
literally says that in the Bible and also the the
the the thief of all joy is comparison. So I
don't compare myself to nobody.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Say that again, Clarissa, there you go.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
It was was it? The thief of all joy is comparison.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
And that's what we do in this society, especially with
social media.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Because everybody life is perfect on everybody's rich.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Everybody influencer traveling to this place, not placebo.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Everybody here is perfect, their clothes is perfect. There's not
a thing out of and you can edit. I can
go take a picture right now with no makeup one
and I can edit make up on my face and
I can look you know, I can enhance my looks
like you can enhance your body now. You can make
your waist be two inches small but be forty five.
I mean, it's just it's a crazy world to me.

(27:18):
We really are.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
And the only people that is hurting in our society
is the young women being raised in this current climate
because it's telling them constantly to change themselves, to change themselves,
and they are not enough, yep. And that that is
something where we resist, which I love, because we show

(27:44):
up exactly who the fuck.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
We want to be every day.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
And if you don't like it, unsubscribe. It's not my problem.
Like I have a platform and what I choose to
do with it and how I choose to show up
is my business. And I am not gonna live it
through filtered lens. Yes, preach, and I'm not gonna ask
someone who is raising, you know, a black daughter, I

(28:09):
will not allow her to penetrate what culture tells her
every single day.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
I tell everybody like, don't be afraid to be different,
you know, don't be afraid to be different. Everybody wanted
to try to put you in this box. It's like
a box, like you said, that doesn't even exist, exists exist?
What does it mean nothing? Because they were saying that
when I turn pro women boxes don't talk trash. Oh
you have to grow talk trash. Oh you need to

(28:38):
be nicer.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
And I was just like, Nope, whether I wear kitten
hills a tight little mini skirt does not matter how
much I'm gonna whoop ass when I step into.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
That doesn't make a difference.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
That feel that core that nothing. I will whoop some
asks no matter what I look like. And and you
you went through it because in the in the film,
you struggled with endorsement deals by saying true to yourself.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, but that also too, So I think I struggled
for two reasons, of course, being true to myself and
not knowing that the world had a problem with a
certain kind of black woman. Yeah, I mean, had I
had They told me, Hey, okay, we all do stuff
for money.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Right, hell yeah, so we gotta pay. We were not
making that kind of money in women's sports.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Right, So I was like, Okay, they would have told me, hey,
you know, not how you talk matters, but how you
look matters, or you need to look nicer inside the ring.
If they would have told me that, I would have like,
I would have looked them like, I would have been
really confused because growing up up in Flint, Michigan, and
I'm the only girl in the gym with twenty other guys,

(29:56):
and I've been sparring these guys since i was a kid.
And now I'm fifteen sparing against grown men and who
are twenty five and thirty. Wow, we're not we I was.
I was taught to every time I step into the ring,
it's my job to dog you. It's my job to
beat you down. I'm already inside the ring with men
who are older and stronger and bigger than me. I'm

(30:17):
not getting here to mess around. So when I get
in there with the with a woman, my mindset doesn't
doesn't change. My only goal is to win, to dominate,
to destroy you. Yeah, you know, like I'll bite your
fucking air like this was God, It's going like up
and up inside the ring is going down. So at
the age of seventeen had they told me, well, they

(30:40):
did tell me to start stop saying I like beating
girls up and making them cry. But at the time
it was like I do, oh yeah, wow. It was
like it's a competitive sport, you know. And then I
feel like if a girl was to beat me ship,
she'll go ship brag about it. She talk about because

(31:01):
I'm hot stuff. Yeah. So it's like I'm supposed to
be the girl and.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Be like, I'm gonna be humble in this moment.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
No, no, not, I'm gonna throw me your face every
second I get I mean, I dropped you, God me
with this, I hit you with that. Like so, I
think that I just wasn't aware that these things existed
in the world of if you want to get indorses
and sponsorship, you have.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
To have.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
You gotta have a hair person, a make a person,
a soylad, a pr crazy. I didn't know that this
stuff even exists. Now I'm turning thirty and since I
was twenty six, I can say I've had a publicist,
a stylist, a hairstylist, a makeup artist. I got all
this stuff now, but it's because I'm leveling up and

(31:50):
I'm doing different things, but don't ever get it messed up.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm gonna whoop your ass.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Box is still maddens first. And when I and when
I listen, I'll show up to the way in and
my little fur, my little bikini, and I have my
little wig on with my cute hair, my makeup on.
But when it gets time for the fight, the makeup
in the in the in the wig is coming off. Yeah,
and I'm ready to fight, and I'm gonna give you
the best fight that you've ever seen. And I don't know,

(32:20):
like there is no compromise with that. So I don't
know with these companies or these endorsers on like what
they want me to compromise. But I never I see
the guys get endorsement all the time with them being dominant, strong, outspoken,
and rewarded for it. They get rewarded for it. So

(32:40):
it's like, why can't I get rewarded for it? Because
I'm showing you that I'm this inside the ring, and
then outside the ring, I'm giving you this so you
see that I'm pretty, You see that i'm a good
looking woman. You see that I'm well spoken, that I'm
very strong minded, and i'm very inspirational, motivational, with the

(33:01):
biopicing it like you see the woman that I am,
but then inside the ring you see a beast. So
it's like, how is that hard to market? Yeah? I
think I think it's a home one.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, I don't. I totally agree.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
And I love.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
The letter you wrote in twenty ten. It's twenty ten,
players Tribune to your grandmother.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Whoel was two thousand. I feel like he was sixteen.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
I read that letter you wrote to your grandmother, and
she had passed by then twenty ten. Yeah, it was beautiful.
It was a beautiful message that I related to a
lot as someone who was raised by a very very

(33:52):
strong grandmother who taught me so much in my life,
who I admire so much, who is not here anymore,
that I carry her with me and everything I do,
and I see her everywhere I go when I need it.

(34:16):
You have been on this pursuit of excellence and you
have broken barriers at every level. Did your grandmother have
a big, big part of the way you move in
this world?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Listen, my grandmother, I am a spinning image of her,
and I also like a spinning spirit of her. My
grandmother was so nice. Oh, she cooked, she said, care
of me. When I was growing up, they thought, well,
I have like less hearing in one ear, so everybody
thought I was deaf. My grandma taught me sign language,

(34:55):
taught me how to taught me how to communicate and talk.
I to study really bad. And my grandma took her
time with me. And when I live with her from
the age of five to ten, my grandma taught me
how to cook, how to clean, how to communicate. My
grandma wrote poems, my grandma wrote songs. But let me

(35:19):
tell you something. My grandmother, Joanne, did not play. My
grandmother was five ten in height, but you would think
she was six two six giant. She had a aura
about her to where you knew she was not to
be to be played with. You don't disrespect Joanne and

(35:40):
I am the same way. I come from a line
of strong women, and my grandmother just I don't know.
She gave me so many great tips in my life
and something the things that I didn't understand, what stand
that I didn't understand that what she was saying when
I was younger, and then I and then I hear
it now and I'd be like she was and starcastic

(36:00):
she's being funny. You know. I think I was fourteen.
I had a boyfriend and she said, Cocle, I'm gonna
get you a belt to keep your pants up. And
I was like, what does that means? Because my pants
were so tight that I had like, what are you
talking about, Grandma? And she was like mm hmm, And
I was like and then I don't know. I turned,
I don't know, nineteen and twenty, I'm like, it comes

(36:21):
to my head. Like she said, I'm gonna get your
bell to keep your pants. I'm like, oh, she knew
what on h But it was funny because I didn't
understand it because I was a virgin until I was
seventeen and a half. So I'm like, okay you. But
also she said, you know, a do what makes you happy.

(36:41):
And my grandma let me let me play basketball and
football with the guys on the street. She cook for
the whole block. My grandma threw fundraisers for me to
have money to go to these amateur tournaments. She used
to hang my robot and robe out in front of
her house so everybody can see that. I said, Chris,
to see rex. She was on the back when when
they rode past the big old flecky rope. My grandma was.

(37:07):
She was my everything. So I carry her in my spirit,
you know. But she taught me a lot. She and
she in one thing, it's so many things. She taught
me so many different things. But she just taught me,
like not to tolerate disrespect. She said, respect goes way

(37:27):
longer than gifts. Yes, you know, people just giving you stuff,
people being being faked or do She said, respect. Don't
let nobody disrespect you belittle you. Always be true to yourself,
be strong and who you are. And my grandma accepted me,
you know. She never was like, oh, you shouldn't do this,
you shouldn't do that. My grandma loved the fact that

(37:48):
I was boxing. She loved it. She hated when I
used to get up, when I used to get upset
and cry I had a bad day at the gym.
But she would just be like, you do Coco, just
go back tomorrow. Yeah, and you do better tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
And what I will say, as I have interviewed some
of the greatest athletes of all time, Billy Jean King
just said that.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
And she is an absolute icon and a woman who
is so incredibly wise. She spoke about the way you
know her father was her mentor, and there was no
coincidence on the way all of us successful athletes have
been raised about knowing our way in the world and

(38:39):
knowing exactly who the fuck we are and not compromising
or not trying to fit in, or not minimizing or
belittling ourselves to make other people happy. We will not
sacrifice ourself and our worth and minimize art who we
are for other people to to accept us. And I

(39:02):
think it is really interesting that we have all had
really strong figures in our lives who believed in our
gifts before we believed in them ourselves. And I do
think that that has a lot to do with the
secret Sauce. I always ask this question, and for a
woman who has lived through so many seasons, this podcast

(39:28):
is really about the unraveling and being very wide open
and vulnerable talking about the things that made us who
we are today outside of what we do, and it's
a really important question to ask, and for someone who's
so open and sharing their scars in your journey, what
is the one moment in your life that really split

(39:51):
you wide open, that changed everything for you, either personally
or professionally, like, what was that defining moment that changed
at all?

Speaker 2 (40:02):
You know what, It's two defining moments. The first was
I was fifteen best boxer in the gym. Out of
all the men and the women, I was the only
girl in the gym. And I had a bad day
at the gym. And when I used to have bet
at the gym, I used to start screaming and cursing
and throwing stuff, and I mean I would have a fit.

(40:24):
And when I say I bet at the gym, somebody
kicked my ass that day, because I'm used to kicking ass,
I got my ass kick right. Yeah. And when I
went to somebody in the gym, a lot of times
I didn't talk trash to him. But but but it depends.
So one day a guy, Darion, he got off on
me good this day, so pissed.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
You never forget he got off on me so good.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
It had probably been years since he had beat me
inside the gym. We smart all the time, but I
don't know. He caught me lack in this day. He
pieced me up. And I remember getting off the ring,
he would talk trashing me. Yeah, I got your ass today,
I beat you today, And I just was. I was
so mad, and I get out the ring and I'm
trying to hit him with a chair. Oh and I'm

(41:08):
trying to throw a glove at I'm yelling and screaming,
and Jason like, rest, get your ass off the gym,
get out, and I go in the hallway. I'm just like,
I'm just crying and screaming, and He's like, just go
over there and do that, because he knew it was
gonna happen. And I remember a coach named Jean Yea
walking up to me at the gym after all this.

(41:31):
He said, can you guys tell you try to talk
to me earlier when I was mad? I probably I
probably said, someone probably said shut up talking to me,
leave me on something. And then he said, he said,
once I calmed down, he said, rest. You got all
that talent and use a hell of a fighter. But
he said, if you don't change your attitude, you ain't
gonna get nowhere. He said, you ain't gonna do nothing.

(41:52):
He said, your attitude thinks. He said, you gotta. When
you get mad, you talk to people any any type
of way. You yelling and you screaming. You can't control
your anger, he said, you got everything it takes to
be the best in the world and get everything that
you want off this world, but bad people don't get it.
He said, you got to be a better person than

(42:14):
you are a fighter. And when he told me that,
something hit me in my chest.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
And said, he right, there's truth to that.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
I gotta be a better person. I gotta learn how
to control my anger. Just because I'm a great fighter
don't mean that I can be this way. And it's
not nobody fault that I'm so angry, Like, okay, it's
somebody fought, but it is my job to change it.
And I'm also a Christian, so like it's my job
to be a better person anyway to bring more people

(42:48):
to Christ. And like, how you gonna do that? And
you got a bad attitude, and you think when you
get mad, just everything goes. You can say what you want,
do what you want, disrespect everybody, dispect your elders. And
when he said us to me, it really just it
just it's like somebody punched me in the chest and
said that's real. That's somebody that really cared about you
telling you this. So from that day I start working

(43:12):
on my attitude. And I said you know what. And
you know, when you're working on your attitude, you're working
on something, all types of stuff starts happening. Hell yeah,
the ego stuff starts happening. You like, ooh, the old
me would do this, but the new me have So
I always like, be the new you. Be the new you,
Be the new you, and so many things would happen,

(43:33):
and people were talking to me crazy, disrespecting me. I was.
I had another bad y at the gym, and I
just remember, like, as I'm going through these growing pains.
By the time I turned sixteen and a half seventeen
and I'm at the Olympics, I had a whole different
mindset of how I look that spar and how I
looked that boxing, how I retaliated to people. That conversation

(43:57):
there changed my life. And then it's one more. I
used to I take up donations at Burston field House
to get money to go to tournaments and people to
give five dollars, give a dollar, fifty cent whatever. But
this particular tournament, I was probably fourteen, and a lady
who was a drug addict. She used to call me

(44:17):
Miss Shields, likes to rump past her every morning, run
down North Sacon. Whenever I seen her, she'd be like, hey,
Michelle's keep it up, keep it up, miss Shields. I
believe in you. And she was on drugs, a drug addict, right,
And so I seen her and she was like, Chris,
to come here. I knew she I thought she didna
give me some money, but I'm like, okay, whatever. I

(44:38):
walked up to her, I'm like, hey, how much you
gonna donate to me to go to this tournament? And
she said, Claris, I don't have I don't have any
money for you. But she was like, well I got
something else. And I said my mom being like, what's
better than money? What you got, you know? And she
grabbed my hands. She said, I want to pray with you,
and she just prayed that I just stay strong and

(45:05):
I get on the money that I need to go
to the tournament, and that God protects me my family.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
And after she prayed for me, she said, even though
even though I'm going through what I'm going through, you
give me strength that I can beat this addiction. And
that is probably the two most defining. That moment there
defines so much for me because it was like, what
is more powerful than money prayer. She couldn't give me anything,

(45:39):
she prayed for me, and I feel like her prayer
stills with me to this day. It's one of the
most moving things that's ever happened to me.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Well chose, You're the chosen one. You were the chosen one.
You were the sign of hope.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
I want to call my son that when I have the.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Chosen stay tuned. I'll be back in just a moment
after that. And this brief message from our sponsors. You
were the sign of hope for people who felt hopeless. Yes,
And to see you out on those streets, running every

(46:15):
single day to make yourself better in some small way
made them better, made them want to be better people.
And I think we can never underestimate where we come
from and how we turn hope into action by just
showing up, that's what you did, and I think that

(46:36):
is a very very special gift. And for you to
hold that with you and cherish that moment and talk
about it is really special because Flint, Michigan is not
a place someone like you should come out of, and
all odds against you, you are now showing younger girls

(47:00):
who look like you what's possible, and that to me,
and I'm not going to answer for you. Feels like
a damn good legacy to leave behind.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yes, it's a great legacy to leave behind. And also too,
I'm still human. I still go back to my city
of Flint, Michigan, and I'm so humble and so nice.
Everybody in Flint, Detroit, wherever I go, they feel like, Hey,
you're my sister, your mine, you're you're my cousin, you're
my auntie. It's a few kids that call me their mom.

(47:32):
So it's like kids, I have a kids gravitate towards me.
People people gravitate toward me people in general, but kids,
they just gravitate toward me really easy. And I can
get through to them because I speak the real I
actually know how it is to grow up without without
certain things that you know some I think, I'm not

(47:55):
gonna say privileged kids have. But if you a kid
and you're a teenager and you got a mom that
I care about you, a dad, they care about you,
and they make sure you eat, they clothe you, they
pay all the bills, and you only have to go
without heat and water. I'm sorry, you are a privileged
kid and you are damned with because everybody is not
everybody is not does not have that privilege.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
No, and watching the movie that you just told me
is ninety eight percent very accurate of your life. To
watch your story was very humbling, and it was very
eye opening. And I suggest everyone watched the fire inside
because what you have walked and where you have gone

(48:42):
is a testament to who you are inside and the
way you move in this world.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
And I.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Am excited to show my daughter your story. I'm excited
to show my daughter your strength and your wisdom and
your power. And I'm grateful for your story because I
do think in this unique world we live in, especially
right now with women actually having a movement and sport,

(49:12):
we have to tell our story and we have to
allow people in. And I think too often we think
there's only room for one of us, and we rather
stand on the neck of another woman than on their shoulders.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
H dear, oh you preaching?

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Yeah, And my hope is you know I was a
part of the equal pay movement and US soccer. I
know you were a part of fighting for equal pay,
and I love that you have decided this movement goes
far beyond just putting the boxing gloves on This is

(49:50):
the legacy you want to leave behind. This is what
you want young children who don't have the same access
can aspire to be with very little like it's hope
is an action for me, and you are the action.
You are the living proof of what's possible. And the

(50:10):
more you're willing to tell your story, the more people
are willing to stand outside of their circumstance. Which that
is power, that is strength, that is the movement, and
that is what I'm grateful for. And I'm so excited
I got to meet you in person because you you

(50:31):
are an exceptional athlete, but you're an incredible human and
not enough people give you enough credit. And I hope
that in this movement of women's sports that you get
what you deserve.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Its coming.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
It's coming.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
I say that everything is God's timing. I'm so happy God,
and give me one million.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
I was seventeen, God, what would happen?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Thank you God, because I'd be broken right now I
think that. And now me me turning thirty, I have
coming to the person that I know. I know who
I am, I know what I stand for, I know
what I don't stand for. I have control of my brand,
I know what my brand is and what it's not.
Some some stuff that I just don't align with, but
some things I do. And I just see that now

(51:16):
I can read better. Everybody's not out to get me. Gods,
some good people in the world, and I have to
be and I'm open enough now to accept those good people.
At first, it was like everybody's bad. I can't do it.
So I'm just happy now that I've come into this
space and that I mean, it is okay to be

(51:36):
happy with yourself. I'm happy with how I look, my hair,
my body, my face, my hands.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
You know, happy with everything you're winning, You're dating life good,
life is good. Life is good, and sometimes like we
have to enjoy the good and not dwell always on
the bad. And I love that you're in such a
good place, and congratulations on your latest victory and fight.

(52:03):
You are really dominating in every aspect of the word.
But I love that you're also happy outside of sport. Yes,
because what people don't know about what we do and
the things we sacrifice, we don't open ourselves up often
for joy. No, a lot of isolation, Yes, isolation. We

(52:27):
feel more at ease and struggle and the pain because
that's all we've known, that's all we can allow ourselves
to be. And what you're doing right now is showing
I can be this incredible, bad ass boxer who is
checking every fucking box out there and winning everything I
want and every weight class. But I'm also choosing joy

(52:50):
outside of it because I deserve it. Yes, and you
do deserve it, And I'm really happy for you.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (52:58):
And what's next? Tell everyone? I mean, for someone who's
ticking every damn box out there, what is next for you? Clarissa.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
I want to have two more fights this year and
then next year. I want to have a baby. I
want to have my own I want to have my
own kids. I have taken care of so many kids
in my family. My little sister Brianna has three kids, Suki,
Gemini and Fededdi, and I raise all three of them. Okay,
my nephew, fed Eddie's eleven, Gemini six, and Suki is four.

(53:29):
And when I tell you, these kids like money, Suki
calls me every day, you know he Ley's voice, memos,
Hey can I come over to your house where you're at?
And I've always like my sister kids are like my kids.
But I want to have my own kids. So not
that they won't be my kids no more, but I

(53:50):
want to just I want to have my own kids.
I want to have four kids total, but I will
be okay if I get two or them. Good for
you too.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
And I'll tell you what. There are a handful.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
I've heard they are a handful.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
But it is important for us, as women who are
paving the way for change, to show what's possible. And
that is part of it because so often when I
was in my sport, I was told it's impossible to
balance a professional career and a personal life of raising children.

(54:21):
And I said, watch me, so I think you can
do both. I know you can do both. And what
an incredible gift to show everyone. Not only are you
the powerful woman you are in the boxing ring, but
you're also the powerful woman you want to be outside
of it. And I encourage that because my children are

(54:46):
the greatest gift that I've ever had, and they bring
so much perspective and joy to my life. I would
have been a better player if I had them earlier,
if I wasn't so scared based on what people told me.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Wasn't it possible for me? I'm happy, I kind of waited.
You know, I'm happy about that because, well, even after
I have my first kid or my second kid, I
want to come back to boxing and Boxhimore. I'm not
I'm not gonna retire from boxington. I'm thirty eight, so
I got a good, strong nine eight years in the game.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
All right, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
I got some time.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I'm gonna be following you all all in the entire way,
but I'm gonna tell you that I need to train
with you.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
You gotta let me in.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
You gotta let me into train with you while you
gotta come the only ruler. You can't hit me in
the face, you anywhere. I tell all my friends it's like, listen,
I love hard.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I do not want to have to fight against any
of my friends, even in boxing, like like like like,
I have friends and I'll be telling them like, please
don't call me out because my competitive spirit is gonna
make me. Fuck you.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
I want I want to. I want to hug my
friends and laugh my friends. But some of these girls
friends with in boxing, they they have caught me out
for fights, and I'm like, my girl, I'm different. Yeah,
do you know what?

Speaker 3 (56:10):
I love you?

Speaker 1 (56:12):
This is what I for the people who don't know.
After Mike Tyson fought what was it?

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Jake Paul.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Was a few months ago, absolutely worst fight we've ever watched.
I love what that. You chimed in and were like, oh,
let me know when you're ready to box, like Jake Paul,
I'll fight you. I don't like Paul almost sell out.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Of my skin.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
I'm like, yes, yes, he needs to his ass whopped.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
He does stuff to piss off the whole world. He's
gonna piss the whole world off. Listen. I said, you
don't even have to fight me. Spar with me.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Come on, get it training with us. This is an
open invite.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
I will bite fucking ankles, I will buckle a knee.
I don't play there, so I'm letting you know that.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Now listen, I can play completely fair with Jake. I'm
gonna kick his ass. Now, let's go listen Jake Paul.
First of all, I have to always say this because
he's such a hater. He's like, oh, I don't care
about Clarissa. She's a terrible person. She got all these
great accolades, but she's a terrible person. Amanda surrounding was

(57:23):
such a better person crying on every Mikey get on
about me. But this is what I would say about
Jake Paul, Right, I don't have an issue with the clown. No,
it's just the fact that he has never given me
my props. You can't come into the game of women's
boxing and call somebody else to quote when I got

(57:44):
the most accomplishment. Yeah, I got the more bels, the
Olympic gold medals. I fight better, I'm more dominant. You
cannot say that somebody else is better than me. So
then as we go off from that, it's like, bro,
have some respect.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Put some respect on my Yeah, put damn fucking YouTube
influencer enough.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
And look, I like that about him. He's I think
Jake Paul is a funny guy. I think he is,
and he's done well for him. He's done so well.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Jake, well done.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
We we you know what.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Well done.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
You've made a life for yourself.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
May made some money, got in the ring with Mike Tyson,
he knocked out basketball players, uh UFC fighters. Listen, Jake Paul,
great job.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Man, can't follow him on that, and he's got a
good team around him. So who are we calling out?
Who are gonna have the next fight again. There's some
girls I want to cook all right, who are cooking
on Netflix? Come on, we gotta get Netflix on board. Well,
you know what, speaking into existence.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
So Jake Paul, he doesn't want to fight me because
I beat him up. But he had this girl named
Sadishah Green who he said she would knock out me
and Franchion Cruise ring it the same day. Now French
Tion Cruise already whoop Shadash. But she was talking trash
to me, so I want to beat her up. To

(59:05):
Jake Paul, he's your promoter, come on and make a
fight with me. I want to beat up Hannah Gabrels.
I want to fight Savanna Marshall again from the UK.
She needs to bring bring, bring her but all the
way to America so I can piece her up. Already
beat her up in the already beat her up in
the UK.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
So I'm calling you around everywhere.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Yeah, so come so come to them America and then
who else go to beat up? Well? I wanted to
beat up Natasha Jonas, but she doesn't want to fight me,
of course not. I want to be a police of
momb Gardner. She's she's actually too small, but she had
a lot of lip. We were a little cordial now,
but I still feel like we gotta fight. So if

(59:45):
we don't fight, at least we got a spark so
I can show her with a big dog.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Oh gosh, I love this.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
It's just so many people won't beat up.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
We got to make it happen. Yeah. I need to
be a part of your team.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Yeah. Listen, I got the give the gab and the
gift the deb so it's really no appolicies that off limits.
They all can get it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Oh gosh, Well, thank you so much for being here.
You are so fun.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Thank you for having Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
This has been I'm like tearing up because I'm laughing
my ass off because you just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
You kill me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
I love it because you know what you can. You
can talk the talk, because you can walk the walk,
and you will whoop some ass. So it's not out
of nowhere, which I respect. But I am very grateful
for our time together. I think you're an incredible human
and incredible athlete, and thank you for constantly being open
to share your story and I wish nothing but success

(01:00:41):
for you. Tell everyone watching and listening where they can
find you and follow you and support you on this
pursuit of greatness and excellence even though you continue to win.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Yes, so everybody watching you can find me on Instagram
at CLARESSA shield c l A r E s s
A Shields Shi l DS. I got one point three
million followers, get a two million. Yes, A lot of
behind the scenes content comes from my YouTube channel which
is at Cresta Shields one. I got one hundred and
forty k subscribers.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Amazing, so let's get it to you know a million too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
And then on Twitter, I think on Twitter and Facebook,
everything's at Cresta Shields. So everything with the blue check mark.
If the check mark is not blue, it's not me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
All right, Well, thank you so much and good luck
with everything. And I'm still holding you to it. I'm
coming to train with you. Get my ass in shape.
I got you retiring in my the mindset I have.
I'm an athlete forever. Yes, how I move, how I
show up. Retirement doesn't make that stop. Let me be

(01:01:48):
very clear, Okay, I am an athlete through and through.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Wow, I need to get that. I mean, because I'm
just a fighter.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
We'll see you guys next week on another episode of
Wide Open with Ashland Harris. Wide Open with Ashland Harris
is an iHeart women's sports production. You can find us
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Our producers are Carmen Borca Correo, Emily Maronoff,

(01:02:22):
and Lucy Jones. Production assistants from Malia Aguidello. Our executive
producers are Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our
editors are Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder and I'm your
Host Ashlan Harris