Claressa Shields has not wasted any time jumping into mixed martial arts training.
ESPN’s top pound-for-pound women’s boxer signed with PFL to compete in MMA earlier this week. And on Friday, she arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to train at JacksonWink MMA with her friend Jon Jones, one of the best UFC champions of all time.
Greg Jackson, the legendary JacksonWink MMA co-head coach who has mentored the likes of Jones and Georges St-Pierre, said Shields will be with the team for a two-week trial period to see if she likes it. As far as raw ability, Jackson raved about the 5-foot-10, 165-pound Shields’ potential in MMA. He said Shields is one of the top five athletes with the most upside whom he has coached. He also said it was “a little crazy” how she picked things up so quickly despite having no MMA experience.
“If they bring her up right and she goes step by step and doesn’t rush things, the sky is the limit,” Jackson told ESPN. “Literally, the sky is the limit. She’s so good.”
On her first day of training, Jackson said, Shields already nailed the art of the head kick, landing perfectly over and over for an hour. Shields, a former two-time Olympic boxing gold medalist, is known for her punching power and athleticism in boxing. What will set her apart won’t just be her athletic gifts, though, Jackson said. It’ll be her mind.
“Not only is she brilliantly smart, that is one of the strongest women I’ve ever met in my life, and I’ve met some strong women,” Jackson said. “Holy cow is she physically strong. Just an insanely talented person. … There are plenty of athletic people that aren’t as sharp as she is. She’s really, really intelligent.”
Jones tweeted a video of Shields during one of her training sessions Friday.
OK this is pretty exciting 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wKX227LstJ
— BONY (@JonnyBones) December 5, 2020
Jackson and co-head coach Mike Winkeljohn are no strangers to turning women’s boxing champions into excellent MMA fighters. JacksonWink MMA is the only gym Holly Holm has called home. And Holm has been a three-division boxing champion as well as the UFC women’s bantamweight champ after knocking out Ronda Rousey in 2015.
Shields, 25, will fight in 2021 for PFL, but she will not be a part of the promotion’s season structure, instead competing in one-off bouts. The plan is for Shields to fight in MMA at least twice next year with an eye toward being part of a season in 2022. Shields won’t stop boxing, either. She will do both combat sports at the same time in 2021 and perhaps beyond.
“I was telling MMA fans, I’m not just a talker,” Shields told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto earlier this week. “I know that’s what they are used to, all these clout chasers out there. I’m like, the real deal. Anything I say I can do, I put my best foot forward and I do it.
“I’m not coming to MMA to lose. The next time they see me in the cage, I’m gonna have muscles coming out my damn neck [from] training so hard to win.”