Credit:Pro Fight League
Credit:Pro Fight League
Credit: DaveMandel/Sherdog.com
Credit:Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion boxer Claressa
Shields has an opponent for her first mixed martial arts
bout.
Professional Fighters League announced Wednesday that Shields will
meet Brittney
Elkin at a regular season event on June 10 in Atlantic City,
N.J. Shields will compete in one-off bouts during the 2021 campaign
before participating in the PFL season format in earnest in 2022.
Shields is expected to continue her boxing career while she
competes in MMA. She has been training at Jackson-Wink MMA in
Albuquerque, N.M., of late alongside the likes of Holly Holm
and Jon
Jones.
“I am very excited to cement my legacy as the ‘Greatest Woman of
All Time,’” said Shields. “I cannot wait to step into the PFL cage
for the first time on June 10 and show the world that I never back
down from a challenge. I have shown I am the best boxer in the
world and eventually I intend to do the same thing as a mixed
martial artist.”
Elkin, meanwhile, also served as the debut foe for Olympic judoka
and reigning 155-pound PFL champion Kayla
Harrison for her promotional debut in June 2018. The Colorado
native, who was submitted by Harrison in the opening stanza, owns a
3-6 professional record with a notable victory over Bellator MMA
talent Gabrielle
Holloway.
“I’m very grateful to be back in the PFL and to have this
opportunity to square off with Claressa
Shields,” Elkin said. “I know she is a great boxer but this is
MMA and I plan to show everyone that I am a well-rounded fighter
who can compete wherever the fight takes me.”