Claressa Shields is one of the best pound-for-pound female boxers in history. However, she recently decided to start fighting in MMA, based in large on the more equal opportunities available to female athletes in the sport. “T-Rex” recently attended multiple UFC’s, and befriended league president Dana White, so there a widespread belief that she would sign there and proceed with some impromptu farm-league approach.
However, Shields signed a multi-year deal with the PFL, and during a recent interview with the ever-awesome Damon Martin for MMA Fighting, she explained why.
It was just the conversation. It wasn’t like ‘hey come and train a few months and then fight against the best girl we have at your weight,’ explained Shields. I feel like that’s unfair to me. It’s not giving me enough time to learn. If you’re talking about letting me train for two years and then fight against the best girl you have, all right cool.
The conversation with Dana was almost like a one-fight deal kind of a little bit. With the PFL it was more like ‘let’s train, let’s start you off at this level and as you work your way up, the competition will get harder’ and then I would have a chance to fight in the PFL season in 2022. Also, too, I would be able to box also, too. So my boxing career isn’t just over because I’m doing MMA. I actually have a boxing match in February. It just hasn’t been announced yet. I still get to box and I’m not being rushed.”
It was a lucrative deal and a lucrative conversation. It was a three-year deal. It’s like ‘hey you come over here and fight two times and then go back to boxing.’ I’m a conqueror in everything I do and I’m a winner. So I want to put myself in a position to always win.
I’ve gained over 22 or 23,000 followers via social media and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. All my numbers have went up. I think I’ve been trending on Twitter. I’ve been trending on Google for the past three days. Just the support the MMA world has been giving me just transitioning over. There’s been some haters, for sure, but there are more people giving me support. I get the support in boxing but also, too, the opportunities just aren’t there.
I haven’t fought since January. You see all these other guys, small-time fighters who aren’t world champions fighting but these networks are giving me trouble about me being on the card. Giving me problems and not treating me equally.
On every MMA card, you see women on the card. They don’t have to be main event but you see women be the main event, co-main event, be the undercard, you just see women fighting. In boxing in the USA, you’ll see me fighting on TV. You’ll see Mikaela Mayer fight on TV and she’s fighting on ESPN.
But Premier Boxing Champions don’t have not one female fighter signed to their stable. DAZN has all the girls in the U.K. but here in the U.S. it’s really just me and Mikaela and maybe Amanda Serrano but she still has a hard time getting fights and getting put on TV networks. I’m not the only female going through this. There’s lots of females in America who are going through this.
Shields is currently practicing with Jon Jones and Holly Holm at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
That’s why I’m here … with some of the best fighters and some of the best trainers, said Shields. I feel like I’ve been able to spend three hours in the cage just learning from ‘Jonny Bones’ and just drilling with him and I spent two hours to an hour with Holly Holm working on some kicks. She kicks so fast and so hard. It’s just showing me what the real deal stuff is.
