Claressa Shields To Return To MMA Soon

Claressa Shields will return to the MMA.

Following her unification fight with Savannah Marshall, Shields, the middleweight boxing champion, will come back to mixed martial arts in November in PFL, according to PFL CEO Peter Murray.

“She is training for one of her biggest fights in her pro career in boxing right now… that’ll happen in September, and following that, she’ll going to make her third pro MMA fight in November, on our championship card… after that boxing bout, she’ll then transition to full MMA mode and she’ll be on the November card,” Murray said on “The MMA Hour.”

To reclaim her WBO female middleweight championship from Savannah Marshall, Shields will enter the ring for the second time since on September 10 at the O2 Arena.

Shields left the championship vacant during her time in MMA, and Marshall has held it ever since. She has successfully defended the title three times.

After practicing BJJ with Holly Holm and the IBJJF No Gi World Champion Roberto Alencar, Shields went 1-0 in the MMA competition under the PFL brand.

In late 2020, Shields joined Holm at JacksonWink MMA. Shields defeated Brittney Elkin by TKO in the first round of her first match. At the PFL Championship event, Shields fell to Abigail Montes by a split decision.

After chatting on Twitter, Murray also hinted that he would be open to inviting Jake Paul to mixed martial arts.

“We have a relationship with Jake… He’s ambitious from a business perspective as well as an athlete… should he want to take on MMA, that’s something we’d certainly be excited about,” Murray added.

According to the NYSAC, Hasim Rahman Jr. was unable to make weight for the bout, forcing Paul to cancel his August 5 battle at Madison Square Garden.