Could Claressa Shields become a two sport world champion? The boxing star can't see any reason as to why she couldn’t.
The 28-year-old will make the walk to the Smart Cage for only the third time in her career when she faces Kelsey DeSantis on the undercard of the PFL vs Bellator: CHAMPS fight night; which is headed to Saudi Arabia on February 24th as part of the Riyadh Season.
As well as featuring some up and coming talents on the undercard, the main portion will pit some of the most well known current and former champions against each other, across multiple divisions. The epic fight night comes just months after PFL acquired Bellator.
Speaking to the media at the PFL vs Bellator press conference, Shields expressed her eagerness to get herself back in the win column and outlined her plans within the mixed martial arts world. She said:
“There’s a lot of great talent in the PFL. I just want to do my due diligence and train and just win my fights and hopefully I’ll be as great as these guys up here and be able to fight for the PFL Championship and fight for the million dollars. Right now it’s one fight at a time and I want to get back on a winning streak as I lost my last fight by split decision. I just want to keep moving forward. Being able to be a woman and fighting in the first pro MMA bout in Saudi Arabia is a big deal for me and my career. I just want to come back and show that boxers can do MMA and that I have the potential to be a PFL World Champion one day.”
The undisputed boxing Middleweight World champion admitted that her burning desire to crossover and compete in MMA initially came from the belief that no female MMA star would meet her in the boxing ring, and some choice words from a former UFC champion. She said:
“I wanted to fight Amanda Nunes in a boxing match and when they asked her if she would fight me she said, ‘tell Claressa Shields to come to my world and I’ll choke the s--- out of her,’ When I heard her say that it really lit a fire in me. You know what, none of these girls are going to come over from MMA and fight me because they know I’d win, hands down.”
The self-proclaimed ‘GWOAT’ (Greatest Women Of All Time) also saw the move to MMA as a way to further challenge herself and see how far she can make it in a second sport.
“But it would be a super challenge for me to go over to MMA so I just wanted to challenge myself and show that I’m not just bad ass in boxing, I’m bad ass fighter, period. So why not come over to MMA and just prove myself. So that’s why I’m here even though a lot of people thought I would just run back to boxing but, hey, here I am. I’m just here to get better and believe in a year or two, I will be fighting for a world title.”
PFL have a proven track record of building and nurturing stars, giving them the right fights at the right time. Shields already possesses star power and is a household name in the boxing world so the main focus will be ensuring she is matched correctly. One especially intriguing matchup fans could see further down the line would be against long time boxing foe Savannah Marshall, who has also recently signed a deal with PFL and is currently training at Aspinall BJJ alongside the likes of UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall.
