Claressa Shields says women’s MMA is marketed better than in boxing, ‘It’s fair’

Claressa Shields made a successful MMA debut this past Thursday night at PFL 4.

The 26-year old Flint, Michigan native is 11-0 as a professional boxer with two Olympic gold medals to her name. Shields now comfortably gets ready to build some momentum in her new sport.

“In my opinion, women’s MMA is more better than – more marketed than women’s boxing because it’s fair,” Shields said in a short video. “The women fight three five-minute rounds, so does the men. You fight for a world championship fight; five minutes, five rounds. Men and women. Boxing doesn’t have that. They have all these rules to make it seem like women are weaker and women aren’t capable.

“Boxing fans don’t like that. They want to see us fight 36 minutes, they want to see us get knockouts. It’s hard to get knockouts in 20 minutes. Nobody can tell me that I don’t have power. I just knocked out a girl in the third round and I was down two rounds, she wrestled me, jiu-jitsu’d me, all that, and I was still able to have gas and take her out. So I definitely have enough power but I don’t have enough time to knock these girls out, it’s only 20 minutes compared to 36.”

Shields defeated Brittney Elkin via third-round TKO in the main event of PFL 4 on the 10th. Unsurprisingly, the elite-level boxer struggled on the ground in the first two rounds but never went away. Instead, it was quite the opposite.

Going forward fans can now fantasize about the potential Shields vs. Kayla Harrison matchup – a would-be MMA Olympian fight between unbeaten PFL stars.

First, however, Harrison will have to finish out the current PFL 2021 lightweight season. After dominating Mariana Morais in her opening bout, she now faces Cindy Dandois at PFL 6 on June 25.