Claressa Shields’ Timeline Just Got Messier: She Says Papoose Came In July, But Her Fiancé Was Still “My Man” In August

Claressa Shields has been very specific about when Papoose entered her life, but some resurfaced posts from her previous relationship are putting a new spotlight on what happened next. The Claressa Shields Papoose timeline starts with their July 6, 2024 meeting, according to both Shields and Papoose. The problem is that Shields was publicly calling another man her fiancé before that date and, based on a resurfaced Facebook post, was still calling Tony Richardson “my man” less than a month later.

That distinction matters because the receipts do not prove Shields lied about when she first met Papoose. In fact, the date she has repeatedly given checks out.

During a recent appearance on Cam Newton’s “Funky Friday,” Shields said she met Papoose on July 6, 2024, while pushing back against the idea that she entered the picture while he and Remy Ma were living as a happy couple.

“I ain’t know Pap. I met him 2024, July 6th to be exact. So it wasn’t a happy home to break up,” Shields told Newton. 

That date lines up with the Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan fight at Newark’s Prudential Center, which took place July 6, 2024. Papoose has separately told VladTV that he and Shields met at that same fight and communicated through DMs the following day. 

Shields has told the story before. During a May 2025 Breakfast Club interview, she recalled Papoose approaching her at the fight, introducing himself as a fan and telling her he had watched her in the Olympics. She then invited him to her upcoming fight in Detroit. According to Shields, they took a picture together, and she later contacted him through DM. 

But now the internet is looking at what was happening on Shields’ side of the relationship equation.

On January 1, 2024, Shields publicly posted photos with Tony Richardson and wrote, “Another year I bring it in with my fiancé…2024 be good to us.”

Then came May.

On May 9, just under two months before Shields says she met Papoose, she celebrated a real estate transaction with Richardson. Shields posted a photo of the two holding documents and a “Sold” sign and wrote, “Yay me and my fiancé just sold our first property together! Cha Ching #Claressashields #GWOAT NOW NEXT TO GET REHABBED & SOLD, apartment complex!” 

So as of May 9, Shields was publicly identifying Richardson as her fiancé while the two were conducting business together.

Then comes the receipt that makes the timeline considerably more interesting.

A resurfaced Facebook post dated August 3, 2024, shows Shields celebrating Richardson’s birthday. The post reads: “It’s my man bday! So you know it’s my bday too. A long paragraph ain’t needed! I love you Tony Rich! Been loving you. Always will love you, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Tonight we celebrate your life!”

That post would have come 28 days after the July 6 meeting Shields and Papoose have repeatedly identified as their introduction.

And that is where the timeline gets murky.

Shields has described her connection with Papoose as developing after that first encounter. ESPN reported that after meeting at the Stevenson fight, Shields invited Papoose to her Detroit fight later that month. The two subsequently began texting and exchanging poems, including romantic ones. Shields told ESPN that only she and Papoose knew the real timeline surrounding their relationship. 

None of the resurfaced posts, by themselves, establish exactly when Shields and Richardson ended their engagement or exactly when Shields and Papoose became exclusive. They also do not disprove Shields’ claim that she first met Papoose on July 6. What they do establish is that the public-facing timeline of Shields’ previous relationship overlaps with the period in which she says her connection with Papoose began developing.

That creates a question Shields’ repeated July 6 answer does not resolve: when exactly did things end with Richardson?

As noted earlier, the breakup date between Shields and Richardson remains unclear, despite multiple 2024 posts in which Shields referred to Richardson as her fiancé. The pair had been publicly linked for years, with Shields announcing their engagement in 2022. 

Meanwhile, Richardson has recently entered the online conversation himself. In screenshots, an account appearing to belong to Richardson responds to a commenter questioning the timeline by alleging Shields was “sneaking.” Because the screenshots alone do not independently establish the underlying allegation, Richardson’s claim should be treated as exactly that: an allegation, not proof that Shields cheated.

There is another layer here. Much of the public debate around Shields and Papoose has focused on whether Papoose’s relationship with Shields overlapped with his marriage to Remy Ma. Shields has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that she broke up their home, while Papoose has also disputed allegations that Shields was responsible for his marriage ending.

Now the resurfaced Tony Rich posts turn the camera in the other direction.

The July 6 meeting date may still stand. The unanswered question is what Shields’ relationship status actually was during the weeks that followed.

Because when an August birthday post still says “my man,” the internet is naturally going to start doing calendar math.