Winning Strategy: As Boxing’s best, Claressa Shields Still Seeks Her Best

Claressa Shields is probably the most dominant fighter in ladies’s boxing. And that’s simply not adequate for her.

She calls herself boxing’s GWOAT (Greatest Woman of All Time) and has to this point at each stage of her younger profession backed up her proclamation. At age 26, Shields is already a two-time undisputed world boxing champion in addition to a three-division champion. The Flint, MI, native has additionally earned two Olympic gold medals (2012, 2016) and has been named Sportswoman of the Yr in each 2016 and 2019.

So why then, as arguably the face of girls’s boxing, would Shields danger her GWOAT standing by leaping into MMA? As Shields makes her PFL debut on June 10 in Atlantic Metropolis in opposition to Brittney Elkin, the chance to step outside her comfort zone and tackle the problem of changing into profitable in two sports activities is a driving issue.

“It’s vital for me to be acknowledged as a two-sport athlete as a result of I wish to present that I can do each,” says Shields, who additionally received 77 of 78 beginner fights. “In any case my boxing accolades, there’s nonetheless a rule during which boxers don’t go to MMA. I wish to change that — and present that I’m the GWOAT of combat sports as a result of I can do each.”

Whereas she plans on making a full return to boxing, Shields is now in full-mode MMA coaching in Albuquerque, NM, on the Jackson Wink Academy, which has produced champions reminiscent of UFC famous person Jon Jones, and Holly Holm, additionally a former boxer who went on to win a UFC title.

On this week’s Successful Technique, the champ explains how everybody can develop into multidimensional skills, in addition to how defeat can develop into a key ingredient to success. Shields additionally shares who GWOATs look as much as, and a few well-known phrases she lives by to today.