For Christina Hammer, fighting in ballyhooed bout was her destiny
Generally, middleweight champion Christina Hammer is as amiable and friendly as any fighter you’ll come across. But when you ask her what she would be doing if she weren’t a professional prizefighter, her tone switches drastically.
“That’s a crazy question,” she answered incredulously. “I mean, boxing is my passion.”
Claressa Shields has the opportunity to become the undisputed middleweight champion on Saturday. She’s also fighting for more important social issues like equality in women’s boxing and eliminating gender labels.
Though many fighters will tell you that they didn’t so much choose boxing, but that the sport chose them, no such rhetoric will be heard from the 28-year-old Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs), who faces Claressa Shields on Saturday in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in a fight to unify the middleweight championship.
Hammer willingly chose boxing as she grew up in Germany, after her parents migrated from Kazakhstan to pursue better opportunities for their family. Hammer, by all accounts, grew up in a happy, stable environment, unlike many others in the sport.
“My family was very sporty and we watched [boxing] all the time at home,” recalled Hammer, who was just 1 year old when the family left Kazakhstan. “My uncles trained boxing and my father stayed home on the weekends and we trained together. He taught us to move, to punch, to do push-ups, run and stuff like that.
“My uncles trained in the boxing gym, and I followed them.”
Boxing quickly became more than just a weekend activity for Hammer. It became her passion. While she participated in other sports, it was boxing that captivated her.
“Because it was always a competition and I loved this feeling, that I wanted to show who’s the best, work hard and compete with boys. That was so interesting to me,” Hammer said. “I got to be like a real athlete.”
By the age of 18, after a short amateur career consisting of 23 fights, Hammer made boxing her profession and moved away from home, training under the guidance of Dimitri Kirnos. While staking her lot in the hurt business, she eventually continued her higher education at the Campus Unna University of Health and Science, continuing her training while in school.
Hammer has had a storied career so far. Since making her pro debut in 2009, she has captured multiple world titles at junior middleweight and middleweight. Currently, she is the reigning WBC and WBO middleweight champion, with the remaining two belts (WBA and IBF) held by Shields.
With all four belts on the line, this matchup is being billed as the biggest bout in female boxing history. It’s one of the rare fights featuring women that will be showcased on premium cable in the United States.
“Of course it’s the biggest fight, because I’m a longtime champion and she’s a two-time gold medalist, and these fights in the past never happened and people want to see this fight, champion versus champion,” Hammer said. “And that’s a game-changer for women’s boxing, that we have this opportunity to fight prime time Saturday night on Showtime. It’s huge for women’s boxing.”
While the likes of undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus and unified lightweight world champion Katie Taylor play to large throngs in their home regions and are generally well accepted, American audiences have not been all that receptive to female boxing.
In the past, while Christy Martin, Mia St. John, Laila Ali and Ann Wolfe had various degrees of popularity and respect, they were more or less shunned by the mainstream. At best, they were curiosities; at worst, novelty acts. And there simply weren’t enough compelling matchups that moved the needle with the public.
Back in December, when HBO bid farewell to boxing, the cable channel broadcast one final card that featured Braekhus and Shields on the same bill. It was attended by less than a thousand fans. But maybe that isn’t a fair gauge of the popularity of female boxing, given that the event was basically a funeral for the network’s boxing coverage.
In Hammer versus Shields, you have a fight of great importance and two accomplished boxers in their physical prime. But with that comes a certain amount of pressure for them to put forth a memorable battle.
“It’s always pressure when you fight, it’s normal,” Hammer said. “The people want to see a great fight. I prepare for everything, because in boxing anything can happen, and I want to win and I have to work hard. I’ve pushed myself so hard because I know Claressa is a hard opponent.”
It’s clear that what’s on the line is not just the undisputed middleweight title but also the designation as queen of boxing, the face of the sport.
When asked her thoughts about Shields, Hammer responds with a laugh.
“I don’t know, I don’t have a relationship with her,” Hammer said. “I think she hates me, but I just want to do my job and be undisputed champion. I think we are very different, and maybe she’s a little jealous of me.
“Like, I’m doing these modeling things, and at the press conference she told me, ‘Why are you doing bikini pictures?’ and I told her, ‘Because they are paying me for that. Maybe they don’t want to see you in a bikini.’
“I think it’s very good that I’m not the typical type of boxer. It’s like inside the ring I can be a beast, and outside, like a beauty.”
Some will roll their eyes at Hammer’s comments (no matter how honest they are), and others will question her authenticity. But it’s difficult to doubt her commitment to the sport.
At 28, she is wed only to the sport of boxing (“no kids, not married,” Hammer points out), and she makes it clear, “My life is about boxing.”
Other aspects of her life can wait. For now, boxing is her main focus.
“I think two or three more years, because I first want to finish this job, be undisputed champion,” Hammer said. “I think after this fight there will be a lot of opportunities, a lot of doors that can be open with this fight. It’s huge that this fight [is happening].”