Professional Fighters League has made a significant addition to its
roster.
The promotion has signed boxing champion and two-time Olympic gold
medalist Claressa Shields to compete in the lightweight division.
MMAjunkie.com was first to report the news.
Shields will not participate in the PFL 2021 season format; instead
she will take one-off fights at various events throughout the year.
The arrangement is similar to how Olympic judo gold medalist
Kayla
Harrison began her PFL tenure in 2018 before winning the
organization’s 155-pound championship in 2019.
In the past, Shields has
publicly mused about a transition to MMA, and she has a enjoyed
a training relationship with current Bellator featherweight queen
Cristiane
Justino.
Shields later
attended UFC 245 in December 2019 to watch Amanda
Nunes defend her bantamweight title with a unanimous decision
victory over Germained de Randamie. UFC president Dana White
confirmed that he had engaged in discussions with Shields and her
team regarding a fight with Nunes in either MMA or boxing. Those
talks apparently never got too serious, as Shields will now make
her MMA debut under the PFL banner.
Shields is currently 10-0 as a professional boxer after compiling a
77-1 mark as an amateur. She is one of only a handful of fighters
to hold all four major titles — WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO — in boxing.
Shields last competed in January, taking a unanimous verdict over
Ivana Habazin after weighing in 153.4 pounds for the bout.
Shields’ signing comes on the heels of another high profile
addition by PFL, which
signed former UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio
Werdum earlier this month.
The PFL will begin its 2021 season in April. The organization
canceled the 2020 campaign due to concerns regarding the COVID-19
pandemic.