By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Claressa Shields takes offense to those that think sex should sell in women’s boxing.

The unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion cannot comprehend why some might find that narrative acceptable in 2019. If women’s boxing is going to progress to the level of women’s mixed martial arts, when women can headline shows that also feature male championship matches, the quality of the boxers and competition must mandate it, nothing else

That’s why Shields has taken exception to her opponent Saturday night, Christina Hammer, moonlighting as a bikini model in her home country of Germany. Hammer makes no apologies for making extra income through these sponsorship deals and disagrees with Shields’ stance.

The college-educated WBO middleweight champ sees such shoots as positive promotional tools to enhance her career. Shields and Hammer debated this issue recently during a sit-down interview with Showtime’s Kieran Mulvaney.

On Wednesday, following the final press conference for their middleweight title unification fight, Shields defended her approach to talking trash on social media, as well as the aforementioned argument.

“You know, talking trash, they looked down on me for that when I first turned professional,” Shields told a group of reporters. “Me saying I was one of the greatest amateur boxers in the United States [made] them [try] to say that I shouldn’t say that, when it was like everything I’m saying is facts. So, I got to the point within myself where I’m like, ‘It is a fact that I am the most decorated American amateur boxer. I won the Pan-American games, the Olympics twice, World Championships twice, Continentals – anything you can think of international or national, I won. So, I am the most decorated amateur boxer in the United States. So that was fact.

“So, then it went from me to the trash talk. People were like, ‘That’s not ladylike. That’s not classy.’ And I was like, ‘But the men do it all the time.’ And I’m like, ‘How do they expect us to sell women’s boxing if when I see you I’m all just like I’ve got on a dress and heels, and I wanna shake your hand and wanna show a [breast]?’ That’s not boxing and that’s not what sells in boxing. You’ve got some out there who would say, ‘Women’s boxing is so whack we wanna see them boxing naked. You don’t wanna see me box [naked]. You wanna see me fight.’ This is not a clown show. We are really putting our lives on the line for this boxing match.”

The 24-year-old Shields (8-0, 2 KOs), of Flint, Michigan, and the 28-year-old Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC), of Dortmund, Germany, will meet in a 10-round, 160-pound main event Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Ballroom. Showtime will televise the Shields-Hammer match as the main event of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” tripleheader (9:10 p.m. ET).

This three-bout show will open with a 10-round heavyweight battle between Sweden’s Otto Wallin (20-0, 13 KOs) and Baltimore’s Nick Kisner (21-4-1, 6 KOs). Following Wallin-Kisner, Jermaine Franklin (17-0, 13 KOs), of Saginaw, Michigan, and Detroit’s Rydell Booker (25-1, 12 KOs) are set to square off in another 10-round heavyweight bout.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.