Claressa Shields scores first knockout win since 2017, stops Lepage-Joanisse in two

Claressa Shields finally delivered on a knockout promise.

Claressa Shields recorded her first stoppage win since 2017 tonight, stopping a deeply overmatched Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in the second round.

Shields (15-0, 3 KO) hadn’t scored a stoppage since her fourth pro fight, despite consistent promises to knock opponents out. She came out firing with malice tonight, though, and Lepage-Joanisse (7-2, 2 KO) wound up on the canvas three times in the second round.

The win also nets Shields the WBC heavyweight title and WBO light heavyweight title, neither of which mean much beyond stat padding because neither division really exists in women’s boxing.

Shields does remain one of the sport’s most dominant competitors, and here’s hoping something more legitimately intriguing is out there for her the next time we see her in a boxing ring.

On the undercard, Michel Rivera made it two straight wins with a split decision victory against Hugo Roldan, which should not have been a split decision. Roldan curiously got one card on a 95-94 tally, while Rivera took the other cards on scores of 98-91 and 99-90.

Rivera (26-1, 14 KO) got a knockdown in the final minute of the fight, but otherwise just did his job in competent fashion against the tricky, awkward Roldan (22-3-1, 7 KO), who has now lost two in a row and three of his last four.

In the opener, Julian Smith upset Shohjahon Ergashev by split decision over 10 rounds, and it probably should have been wider than it was on the cards. Two judges saw it 95-94 for Smith, the other 95-94 for Ergashev.

The difference wound up being a fifth round knockdown, but Smith also scored what should have been a knockdown at the end of the second round, but the referee had a split second 50/50 call to make and he ruled the shot landed just after the bell. On replay, it lands pretty much exactly with the bell, but the referee doesn’t get the benefit of replay. (Commissions should really all make replay available for calls like that, but they haven’t all gotten around to it.)