"It isn't just me poking the bear, the bear poked me"- Claressa Shields discusses a potential boxing match with Amanda Nunes
Claressa Shields is very interested in a boxing match with Amanda Nunes, but she wants to make it clear that it was Nunes that challenged her, not the other way around.
It's become a trend for boxers to challenge UFC fighters to boxing matches, where the vast majority of mixed martial arts techniques are illegal. Few boxers have been willing to do the reverse and step into the octagon. However, Claressa Shields says she's willing to fight UFC women's double champion Amanda Nunes in the cage ... eventually.
In a new interview with MMA Junkie, Shields said:
"Amanda Nunes said a week before her fight that she wanted to fight me in the ring. So it wasn't just me poking the bear, the bear poked me. So ... Amanda Nunes said she wanted to fight me, and that would be one of the biggest fights in women's boxing as far as in crossovers. And I agree with it. I would love for us to box inside the ring, and like I've said before, I will get inside the cage with Amanda Nunes, but it'd be in two years."
Watch Claressa Shields discuss a fight with Amanda Nunes below:
Shields is a two Olympic gold medalist and three-division boxing champion. She's also the only boxer to hold the WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF titles in two weight classes simultaneously. And while her MMA record stands at 1-1 after two fights in 2021, she clearly has aspirations to conquer the cage as well.
For now, though, Shields is concentrating on Savannah Marshall, who she'll box on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
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Amanda Nunes believes a fight with Claressa Shields would be "the biggest"
Amanda Nunes sits atop the WMMA world holding the UFC women's bantamweight and featherweight titles. There aren't too many challenges in MMA on the horizon for her, so when a reporter asked her if she'd be interested in boxing Claressa Shields in the future, 'The Lioness' said yes.
βI feel like that would be the biggest because she's big in boxing and I'm definitely a hit in MMA, so definitely it will be big. I feel like it would have a lot of good feedback from the fans.β
Nunes just won the 135-pound belt back from Julianna Pena after suffering her first loss since 2014. As it stands, there aren't any immediate contenders on the horizon for her in either weightclass, although UFC president Dana White has suggested a superfight against 125-pound champion Valentina Shevchenko might make sense.
Claressa Shields wins her MMA debut #pflmma https://t.co/OBmR4rmO01