Olympic champion Claressa Shields expects to become boxing’s next superstar

Claressa Shields had a hard time getting to her MGM Grand hotel room after Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward made their “Grand Arrivals” on Tuesday.

The two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist made multiple stops to take photos with boxing fans on the casino floor.

“I don’t think I go a day now without someone asking me for a photo,” said Shields, who took gold in London four years ago and in Rio de Janeiro this summer. “It’s usually someone who has seen my face before but just can’t figure out who I am.”

Shields doesn’t get offended when fans forget her name. The next women’s boxing sensation is confident that her handle will soon become a household name.

“I’m one in a century,” Shields said.

The brash, hard-hitting Shields will make her highly anticipated professional debut on the Kovalev-Ward undercard Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. Shields will fight another decorated American in Franchon Crews in a four-round middleweight bout.

Shields, a 21-year-old from Flint, Michigan, wants to bring women’s boxing back to prominence and already has a blueprint on how to do it.

First on the list was to have her debut televised on a major card. She can cross that one off.

“I wasn’t going to go pro unless I’m on television,” Shields said. “I want women’s boxing to get its dues. To be on television and get better pay. People will be seeing me a lot.”

Shields’ bout will be televised for free at 4 p.m. Saturday on the pay-per-view channel that will air the official Kovalev-Ward HBO PPV card at 6. The free view also will be available through live streaming on HBO Boxing’s YouTube channel and ESPN 3.

The Olympic star’s next lofty goals are to fight 10 times in 2017 and to win a world title by the seventh match.

“I know I’m already the best out there, and I’m better than 90 percent of the guys fighting right now,” Shields said.

That type of honesty and confidence is the reason Mark Taffet, a former senior vice president of HBO Sports, jumped at the opportunity to manage Shields.

“Claressa Shields has the ring tenacity and focus of Mike Tyson and the out-of-ring charisma of Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya,” Taffet said. “She has the potential to be a game-changer, not only for women’s boxing but for boxing overall.”

Shields wants to emulate what female mixed martial artists such as Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Holly Holm have done in the octagon and bring it to the ring.

The boxer known as “T-Rex” has the power and skills to spar with professional male boxers, including former U.S. bronze medalist Andre Dirrell, also from Flint.

Shields has Flint to thank for the hunger and aggression she has. Flint has been in the news a lot lately for polluted water, poverty and crime. Shields wants to change the perception of her hometown.

“I always carry Flint with me,” said Shields, who is going back home next week to hand out free turkeys. “There’s so much negativity coming out of there. People can hear that there’s also good. They can see what I’m doing and also want to do good.”

Shields enjoys the new fame, but she knows it can be gone in a heartbeat.

The Michigan native became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing in 2012 and assumed the endorsements would pile up after accomplishing the historic feat. But she didn’t get her first endorsement until 2015.

“I had a few interviews after 2012, and I was forgotten after three months,” Shields said. “I just continued to wait and continue to get better, and here we are in 2016 and everything is a lot better.”

Contact Gilbert Manzano at gmanzano@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0492. Follow @gmanzano24 on Twitter.