Claressa Shields praises Boots Ennis after fight against Xander Zayas

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CARDIFF, WALES - APRIL 04: Claressa Shields in attendance during the Lauren Price vs Stephanie Pineiro Aquino: Awaken The Dragon fight night at Utilita Arena Cardiff on April 04, 2026 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images) | Getty Images As Claressa Shields made an appearance to officially announce an upcoming fight against Kaye Scott, some boxing media asked her for her thoughts on the recent super middleweight title fight between Boots Ennis vs Xander Zayas. Shields would say that while Boots has received a lot of criticism for what transpired in the third round, she believes he actually put on an amazing performance. “I know everybody else commentary is the third round of the fight where Zayas supposedly hurt Boots and that’s what they like to keep going around and saying,” said Shields. “But for Boots to have no belts and go over there and fight a guy who says he’s going to take his heart and he’s going to do all this, he go over there – I like Xander, I do – Boots beat the dogsh-t out of him from the first bell, dropped him. “People get hit in fights, that happens. See, to me, that is an A+ performance by Boots. You cannot discredit him. People so biased. They like ‘oh, we want to give all this love to Xander…’ but had it been flipped, like if Boots quit against Xander they’d be calling Boots a quitter. But because Xander quit or got stopped against Boots they’re all like ‘Xander, he got so much heart.’ Be fair and like give Boots his due. Right now at 154 he is the man and a big challenge for him will be Fundora. “Fundora is a big challenge for anybody because of how long he is and his height, but Boots has enough in his arsenal to beat Fundora, I feel, but he got to be very, very smart. He can’t the same mistake he made getting hit with that straight jab and that right, he can’t do that with Fundora.”

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Claressa Shields says she was thoroughly impressed by Boots’ performance over the weekend.