Claressa Shields on picking the brains of Holly Holm and Jon Jones
Claressa Shields takes on Brittney Elkin on June 10th for PFL. This lightweight prizefight emanates from Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Elkin is a decorated Jiu-Jitsu player and is entering the cage for her tenth pro MMA fight against boxing’s GWOAT/ mixed martial arts neophyte Shields. PFL hosted a media day on June 7th featuring these two combatants ahead of this intriguing contest.
I spoke with Claressa Shields about the decorated boxing champion’s training methodology as she readies for her MMA debut.
Claressa Shields
Much has been made of your work at Jackson Wink recently. But I’m kind of curious if you’ve been able to pick the brains of certain athletes like Heather Hardy and Amanda Serrano who have also done the crossover you’re endeavoring to do?
“I haven’t been able to pick Heather Hardy or Amanda Serrano brain. But I’ve been able to pick Holly Holm’s brain and I’ve been able to pick Jonny Bones’ brain. And I’ve been able to put my brain together with Coach Jackson and Coach Wink. To make this transition to be as comfortable for me as they want it to be, right. So I’ve been able to talk to some greats and I feel like Holly is just, she’s like the cheat code for me.”
“Because she’s done it successfully; the only boxer. People talk about me transitioning but it’s like, I want to be MMA world champ and boxing champ at the same time. Holly Holm, she did it but she did it one at a time. So that’s the only difference. So me and her had plenty of conversations. We have plenty of sparring sessions between her and I. We’ve done some wrestling stuff and some Jiu-Jitsu stuff together, you know. To help with getting prepared for this fight.”
