Claressa Shields Eyes Her Place Among Combat’s Best

Claressa Shields doesn’t waste words when she talks.

So, when she suggests double-digit title belts across three boxing weight classes might be just a prelude to her next combative phase, the succinct delivery only amplifies the menace.

She’s not rambling to hear herself talk or to sell a fight.

She simply believes what she’s saying and feels no need to add dramatics to prove it.

The 27-year-old sat down recently with Bleacher Report and was remarkably matter of fact when discussing quests only the highest of the high end can conceive, let alone pursue.

“My overall goal is to be boxing champion and PFL champion at the same time,” she said.

“After that, I don’t know if I’ll have any desire to continue to fight MMA or to go to the UFC or something like that. I don’t know.

“But I just know that’s my overall goal: PFL champion, boxing champion, same time. Good.”

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Good enough for the self-professed “Greatest Woman of All Time?” Perhaps.

But for anyone who thinks it’s just that easy, here’s a tip: It’s not.

No one’s ever achieved it with a major promotion.

The only person to even approach it—Holly Holm—had hung up her full-time boxing gloves more than two years before reaching the UFC summit with a shocking upset of Ronda Rousey in 2015.

Shields wants to reign simultaneously.

And if anyone’s got the street cred to follow the trail Holm blazed, it’s her.

The Michigan native was a two-time Olympic champion before throwing a single punch for pay, and she flung a first pair of pro title belts at 168 pounds across her shoulder in 2017 after only four bouts.

Two more straps arrived 10 months later at 160 and were followed by several unifications and another dip down in weight that yielded four titles across two fights at 154 pounds in 2020 and early 2021.

AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

In doing all that, she helped lay the foundation for a new golden age of women’s boxing.

“It’s kind of unbelievable,” she said, “but that’s why I turned pro because I knew that women’s boxing needed me to be a part of it. I’m not the only one. We have the likes of Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, myself, Franchon Crews, Hannah Rankin, there’s other champions. We’ve all done our part. Even Mikaela Mayer. We’ve all done our part to help build women’s boxing to where it is now.

“I just think out of everybody that I’ve taken the most risk. To go from 168 to 160 to 154, to fight the best girls that they’ve got, to fight the No. 1’s, to fight the No. 2’s and really challenge myself to lose that weight when I hadn’t fought at 150-anything since I was 15 years old. I think me doing that, me bringing trash talk back to women’s boxing, me bringing that aggression and that passion to where people understand, ‘Yeah, it’s a boxing match, but this is my life.’ That’s what sets me apart.”

But just as she seemed ready to settle in and dominate the ring, another challenge beckoned.

Shields signed a three-year contract with the Professional Fighters League—a U.S.-based mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2018 and considered a next-tier rival of the UFC—debuting with a third-round TKO of Brittney Elkin in April 2021 before a split-decision loss to Abigail Montes in October.

It was her first loss in any arena since 2012, when Savannah Marshall beat her in a pre-Olympic boxing tournament in China and provided the only blemish on an amateur record that wound up 64-1.

And Marshall, conveniently, has made her way back to Shields’ check-cashing radar.

The 31-year-old English native turned pro in 2017 and has won her first 12 fights, picking up the WBO’s middleweight title along the way and positioning herself after KOs in three straight defenses as a logical challenger to the American’s nearly undisputed claim to 160-pound supremacy.

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The rivals have engaged in spirited trash talk and will meet again on Marshall’s turf—the O2 Arena in London, to be specific—with the division’s four belts (Shields’ three and Marshall’s one) up for grabs when they headline a five-bout women’s card to be shown live on ESPN+ on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

It’s Shields’ second trip to the United Kingdom after a wide decision over Ema Kozin in Wales seven months ago, but if you think the specter of an old rival on a big stage is prompting nerves, think again.

In fact, it’s almost exactly the opposite.

“I thank God for just preparing me mentally to handle the stardom and handle the lights and handle the pressure that people say comes with it,” she said. “I don’t really feel pressure. I really enjoy boxing.

“When it’s time to fight, people try to calm me down because I’m so excited and I’m so ready and they’re like ‘Oh, calm down and relax.’ I don’t feel the pressure like ‘Oh, I’m nervous’ or ‘I’m scared.’ I don’t ever feel that. I just feel really excited all the time.”

The oddsmakers have deemed it a pick ’em proposition with both Shields and Marshall listed at -110 (bet $110 to win $100) on the moneyline, but, not surprisingly, Shields isn’t seeing it as close.

Instead, she claims her taller, longer foe will bristle at the style and pace almost from the outset, and her perceived edge in power—thanks to her 10 KOs in 12 fights, to Shields’ two—will be rendered moot.

“She may have been able to box everybody else with her hands down in that loosey-goosey style,” Shields said, “but with me I can guarantee she’ll have her hands up because we’re going to force to fight a fight that she doesn’t want to fight.

“I’ve got better skills than anybody she’s ever fought, and I’ve got better skills than the people she’s sparring with to get ready. She’s gonna be uncomfortable just being in there with me. It’s not gonna be a boxing match. It’s gonna be a fight. It’s gonna be a war. I’m coming to wage war and cause hell.

“Anybody who don’t want to be a part of that needs to stay far away.”

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And assuming all goes as planned, the hell-causing show will return to MMA—PFL style—which means fights staged in a 10-sided “SmartCage" that uses biometric sensors and other technology to measure/deliver real-time performance data and analytics.

The organization also operates a format where fighters in each weight class begin an annual season with two bouts, in which points are awarded for method of victory. The top four advance to the semifinals and the final two to the finals, where the winner gets $1 million.

The PFL’s 2021 women’s lightweight champion, Kayla Harrison, is among the most well-known fighters in MMA, and ex-UFC lightweight king Anthony Pettis competed in both the 2021 and 2022 PFL seasons.

Shields said she’ll spend 2023 pursuing a PFL title before deciding what 2024 and beyond might bring.

If anything.

“Boxing is my first love. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put that down until its time,” she said. “But I’ll say I know in order to be a PFL champion and an MMA champion you have to dedicate some time. I’m willing to dedicate the year 2023 to that and then after 2023 I don’t know if I’ll be doing MMA anymore.

“The day that another girl says that she can beat me, and I say, ‘OK’ and ‘I agree,’ that’s the day I’ll hang it up. I’m motivated by challenges. I’m motivated by storytelling. I’m motivated just by pushing myself.

“And after fighting Marshall, after beating Marshall, I’ll be going back to the PFL MMA, fighting again, doing the PFL season in 2023. I believe I can be PFL champion in 2023. I just have to have the time to put in the work and prepare. Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”

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