Claressa Shields, the professional boxer and mixed martial artist is considered one of the most fearsome combat sports fighters in the ring. Though she is known for winning many accolades across different weight classes, her life was influenced by her parents, Bo Shields and Marcella Adams.
Aside from being the most popular member of her family, she is not the only child, the Flint-born combat sports fighter and Olympic gold medalist has three siblings Brianna Shields, Artis Mack, and Dusable Lewis. Aside from this, she is engaged to her long-time boyfriend, Tony Richardson.
Claressa Shield’s Parents: Let’s Meet Bo Shields and Marcella Adams
Bo Shields
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Reportedly, he introduced the 30-year-old to boxing. Clarence Shields or Bo as he is commonly known fought as an amateur boxer in the underground leagues. With such a huge impact, one would think their relationship was always smooth. It turns out that he was absent from her life for seven of the first 9 years. He was imprisoned when she was two years old and released from prison when she was 9. Bo was imprisoned for dealing drugs. Thus, putting an end to his own boxing career.
Despite this initial setback, he and his daughter moved beyond it. After his release from prison, Bo started talking to Claressa about Laila Ali, one of the toughest female boxing legends. As a result, she decided to go into boxing herself. By the time she turned 11, he started taking her to the gym. Regarding his own career, he has not revealed the details.
Marcella Adams
Details about her mother’s early life are not so clear. Yet, it is generally believed that she had drug problems during Claressa’s childhood. As a result, Adams had a lot of male friends coming to the house while her father was locked up. This exposed the future champion to sexual abuse from the age of five. Thankfully, her grandmother and an aunt stepped in to take care of her needs.
At some point, her relationship with her mother was so affected because Marcella did not believe Claressa was abused by her boyfriend. Thankfully, her mother later apologized to her many years later and the two mended their relationship.
She Has Three Siblings
Claressa has three siblings named Briana Shields, Artis Mack, and Dusable Lewis.
Artis Mack
He is the older brother of the combat sports fighter and Olympic gold medalist. Like other members of her family, Artis is a huge fan of his younger sister. However, things went far when he got involved in an attack against the boxing trainer James Ali Bashir in October 2019. He was trying to protect his sister from a perceived racial slur during a weigh-in ahead of Claressa’s faceoff with Habazin when the fight broke out.
Following this, he was charged with assault which he pleaded guilty to in 2020. As it is he was sentenced to one year in jail. Notably, this is his second stint being locked up. Going through his social media updates, he is done with his sentencing.
Briana Shields
She is 18 months younger than her popular sister. Briana was featured in Rex, a documentary about her sister’s rise to stardom written by Zackary Canepari. Like her sister, Briana, the mother of one son named Bradford, had a tough childhood, yet, she never took up boxing.
Dusable Lewis
He is her youngest sibling. Like Brianna, he is one of her proudest supporters. Per his Facebook bio, he is a life coach and entrepreneur. Dusable owns First Place Society, a coaching hub, and currently lives in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Claressa Shields is Engaged to Tony Richardson
Considering her knockout of champions in the ring and over 10 wins, Claressa’s love life is another area that draws much attention to the Flint native. The undefeated light middleweight champion as of this writing is engaged to Tony Richardson, a gym owner, and her trainer.
He is a graduate of the Bauder College, Georgia where he obtained a degree in fashion merchandising in 2010. The 38-year-old put the knowledge of his training into founding his own brands, AT Fitness as well as the AT Fitness Gym.
They started dating in July 2020. However, they did not publicize their relationship public till November of the same year, when she shared it in an Instagram post. Since then, they managed to maintain both a professional and love life.
Claressa trains at Richardson’s gym and over the years, he has contributed to her career as her instructor and trainer. On her part, she is a brand ambassador for his business.
In March 2022, the pair chose to move the status of their relationship when Richardson proposed to her. He had taken her and her friends to 7 Spice Mediterranean Restaurant and Cafe, Florida a day after her birthday. The celebration later moved from a birthday to an engagement party when he popped the question and she agreed to marry him.
While she faces off with opponents in the ring to retain a top spot, she and Tony have not released details about the highly anticipated event.
See Also: Who Is Estelle Mossely? Bio, Age, Net Worth Of The Boxer And Tony Yoka’s Ex-Wife
Other People She Was Linked to in the Past
Ardreal Holmes
She was linked to Ardreal Holmes. Holmes is also an athlete like the boxing champion. Claressa revealed that she had a crush on him since she was about 13 or 14.
Later on, their paths crossed at the gym they both trained in. While things seemed to be moving fine, it posed a problem with her then-coach, Jason Crutchfield. Crutchfield was Claressa’s first coach and he had seen her through her breakout. With her growing popularity and success, he was strict about her having a boyfriend.
He went as far as warning off all the men that she trained at the gym with. This turn of events clashes with her budding relationship with Holmes forcing her to stop working with Crutchfield. Despite cutting off from an important part of career due to a relationship, it is unclear how and when this relationship ended.
Savannah Marshall
Generally, Claressa has been linked to only men. Yet, in 2022, she was alleged to have slept with the British boxer, Savannah Marshall. The pair’s involvement started with a video of the two having a back-and-forth. In the said video, Johnny Nelson, the TV host is the middleman between the two as the pass banters.
Marshall had won Claressa in her only amateur defeat in 2012 and this set a pace for a rivalry over the next decade. Thankfully, Claressa also won in their 2022 faceoff. Focusing on the alleged sexual relationship between the two, the snippets did not reveal what led to what.
Notably, Claressa later took to her Twitter to clarify that she did not say s*x in the snippet but shit which was later made to sound like s*x. She maintained that she was not gay and had not slept with Savannah.
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