HAPPY TO INSPIRE TMZSports.com
Claressa Shields is raving about the new biopic, "The Fire Inside," chronicling the boxing star's rough-and-tumble upbringing in Michigan ... a "surreal" film "T-Rex" says will positively impact countless people!
"I just believe it's very inspiring," Shields told TMZ Sports. "I've seen my movie now nine times and to see Ryan Destiny portray me as well as she did. I know that 'The Fire Inside' is going to change lives. [Ryan] did such a great job."
The movie, which dropped on Christmas, tells Shields' story as a young female fighter in Flint -- overcoming challenges such as sexual abuse, abandonment, and poverty -- to the Olympic podium, where she made history as the first American woman to win gold in boxing.