Shields attends UFC 245, wants Nunes in boxing and MMA fights

Shields appears to be serious about her idea to try her hand at MMA next year.

Women’s boxing champion and self-styled “GWOAT” Claressa Shields was in attendance at UFC 245 last night in Las Vegas, and spoke with ESPN cameras about her presence at the event.

“Dana White flew me and my manager out,” Shields said plainly. “That’s why I left camp, but I trained this morning for two hours, so that’s good. I’m also here to see Amanda Nunes fight her opponent.”

There has been talk of Shields making a move into mixed martial arts in 2020, though also not giving up on her boxing career, which resumes Jan. 10 on Showtime when she faces Ivana Habazin for a pair of vacant 154-pound titles. Shields has already won belts at 168 and 160, in that order.

“We wanna see what’s up with Amanda Nunes in for the future with a boxing match and an MMA match,” Shields continued. “I think he wanted to see, like, was the rumor real? And I wanted to see was the rumor of him talking real also. So we came out and we had a good 45-minute talk, maybe an hour. It was yesterday.”

For what it’s worth, UFC 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes did win her fight last night, beating Germaine de Randamie by unanimous decision. If you’re wondering about the size difference, particularly for a boxing match, Nunes and Shields are the same height and have about the same reach, but Nunes fights at 135 normally, but has also won a UFC title at 145 pounds, while Shields has never fought under 160 and there are questions how she’ll fare getting down to 154 for next month.

Personally I’m prepared to go out on the cRaZy limb and say that if the pair of fights happens, Shields will win at boxing and Nunes will win at MMA.