A big congratulations to American boxer Claressa Shields, who just won the gold medal in the female middleweight division! She hails from the troubled city of Flint, Michigan and has been chasing her Olympic dreams for years.

I am really really impressed with her. While I consider Holly Holm the best American female boxer at the moment, she is not exciting to watch, running around the ring with her peek-a-boo style. Claressa Shields is the first female boxer I’ve seen in a while, who is strikingly aggressive, with amazing hand-speed. She, perhaps, has the fastest hand-speed of any female boxer I’ve ever seen. If you watch the video of her below, it almost looks like she’s moving in fast-forward, but it’s in real time. She’s also very very tough, and is not afraid to get hit.

Claressa brings startling aggression to the ring, and when I watch her I get the feeling of someone who truly was born to be a fighter. When you watch a great fighter, particularly when they’re starting out and they’re still hungry, the joy and life they bring to the ring is wonderful to watch. I hope Claressa Shields goes on to accomplish a lot more for women’s boxing.