No American boxer has ever won two Olympic gold medals, but Claressa Shields is on the doorstep of history.
Shields, the heavy pre-tournament favorite to repeat her gold-medal performance from the 2012 London Games, cruised to a four-round unanimous decision against Dariga Shakimova, of Kazakhstan, on Friday in their 165-pound semifinal match at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Shields, 21, of Flint, Michigan, will take on Nouchka Fontijn, of the Netherlands, for the gold medal on Sunday afternoon.
As she did in her quarterfinal match Wednesday against Russia's Iaroslava Iaukushina, Shields was once again dominant in her second bout of the Rio Games.
Shields, also the reigning world amateur and Pan American Games champion, started fast, going straight at Shakimova to make her intentions known early on. She fired right hand-left hook combinations throughout the fight, of which she controlled virtually every moment.
At one point, Shields dropped her hands, daring Shakimova to come at her. When she did, Shields nailed her, backing her into the ropes.
She landed punches to the head and body and never let up. As she did in the quarterfinal bout, Shields hurt her opponent with a left hook in the final seconds of the fight, forcing the referee to issue Shakimova a standing eight count.
Shields was a tad rusty in her quarterfinal bout and gave herself a C when asked to grade her performance. She was much happier with the way she fought against Shakimova.
"I give it an A-minus," Shields said. "I did great. I went out there and showed my skill. I went out there and showed my class. I showed I was the better, stronger and more skilled fighter. I actually could have stopped her, but I was having so much fun, I was like, 'Why do that?'
"I decided to go out there and have fun in the rest of the rounds. I was able to start seeing a whole lot of shots come open in the third round. When she came out there in the fourth round, she knew she was down, so she started to come forward a little more, and I was able to counter and get her from there. I know I made it look easy, but that's because I did what I was supposed to do last night. I ate and I drank Powerade, a lot of water and I slept. I felt great. I felt energized. I'm in the finals, but that's not enough. We still have one more."
Shields said she began the fight with a more technical approach to see what Shakimova had for her. When she realized it was not much, she became more aggressive.
"In the first round, I was a little bit technical," Shields said. "When I started seeing the openings, I started landing and landing. When she started to hold me, I would still punch her on the inside. I started going under her arms, around her arms. Anyway it went I was able to land my shots. I was landing some pretty hard shots. I think she's pretty brave for being able to stand up to those shots."
Shields may have won both of her Olympic fights handily so far but she has one more win to achieve her goal of defending the gold medal.
"A lot of girls are here just to beat me," she said. "I'm here to win a gold medal, so them beating me is winning a gold medal to them, so they go out there and they fight a lot harder than their other opponents."
Shields, who ran her record to 76-1, said a second gold medal will secure her legacy as the unquestioned greatest female fighter in the brief history of women's amateur boxing.
"The legacy is definitely important. I want to show that women boxers need to be respected on the amateur level and the professional level," she said. "Also that people that come from where I've come from or come from an area that's similar, don't let your surroundings create who you are or what your parents did or didn't do control who you are. Your life depends on your decisions and it depends on what you want to do.
"Growing up in Flint, there was so much darkness around me, but I still had a few good people around and that's how I was able to see things and become the person I am. I just want to show people that when you make your own decisions for your life, sometimes it plays out the way you want it to. I just want to help people, and I want to help them because what I grew up with and what I had to overcome was difficult, but look where I am now."
The final against Fontijn -- who defeated China's Li Qian in the other semifinal -- will be a rematch from their bout at the world championships, which Shields won.
"She's a really great fighter," Shields said. "She's very tall. I don't think she has the tools to beat me, but I'm quite sure she went home and she worked on a few things. I worked on a few things also. I'm definitely going to go out there and give it 300 percent and hopefully she's going to give her 300 percent. Let the best woman win."