UFC News: Dan Lambert doesn't want cross over match up between Claressa Shields and Amanda Nunes
A mega cross-over fight between Claressa Shields and Amanda Nunes is one of the hottest rumors doing the rounds in the world of MMA at the moment. Boxing champion Shields was the first to announce to the media that she wanted to fight Nunes in a pair of cross over matchups - the first one would see Shields cross over to MMA and the second one would see Nunes stepping inside the boxing ring.
Although Nunes rejected the idea of boxing Shields, she welcomed the boxing champ to face her inside the Octagon.
American Top Team owner Dan Lambert isn't among those buying into the hype of a first-ever female cross-over fight. Speaking to MMA Fighting, Lambert explained how Shields does not stand a chance against Nunes inside the Octagon.
“Claressa would probably get smashed. I mean why didn’t Floyd [Mayweather] want to fight Conor in MMA? I give Claressa less chances of beating Amanda in MMA than I gave Conor beating Floyd [in boxing]. It’s not her sport. You can’t go a lifetime of training in boxing with no sprawling and no wrestling and no grappling. How do you expect someone like that to cross over? I guess you’ve got that one in a million miracle shot that could land. I don’t know.”
Lambert also agrees that Shields will be the overwhelming favorite to beat Nunes but he gave the UFC two-division champion a puncher's chance.
“Claressa would be a monster favorite in a boxing match. I think Amanda’s a unique specimen with how hard she hits. As a female fighter, I think she’s kind of a unicorn when it comes to that, so I would say the gap between the two is much narrower if Amanda were to challenge a boxer than if a boxer would challenge an MMA fighter. There’s just so many ways for Amanda to win an MMA. There’s only one way for Claressa to win a boxing match. So I would think that it’s smaller, but it would still be a really, really big gap for Claressa [in boxing]. That’s all she does.”