Undisputed boxing champion Claressa Shields has weighed in on one of the most contentious debates in modern sports, offering a simple solution to the transgender athlete controversy.
During a recent interview on Effective Immediately, the four-time undisputed world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist shared her thoughts on transgender participation in women’s sports.
When asked about her views on “women who aren’t naturally born as women participating in female sports,” Shields didn’t hesitate with her response: “They should go fight against each other.”
The boxing legend elaborated on her position with practical reasoning. “I am not saying that they shouldn’t be able to do sports because the way that I love boxing, listen, if you was a man and you go over to a woman and you want to box, you should fight against another man who trans who went over and he want to box. And the same thing for the women.”
Shields proposed creating separate competitive divisions specifically for transgender athletes. “Y’all go ahead and fight against each other,” she stated. “I don’t think that they should be coming into the sport where women and women fight. When men and men fight, they should build their own little thing, their own little league where they fight each other.”
Shields’ proposal for separate transgender leagues represents a middle-ground approach that could potentially satisfy multiple stakeholders in this complex debate. Rather than excluding transgender athletes entirely or allowing unrestricted participation in women’s categories, her solution would create dedicated spaces for fair competition.
