Claressa Shields: Cyborg could be a ‘monster’ in boxing
Claressa Shields: “A year of just training in boxing, six months, you’ll able to take on some of the top girls.”
The greatest fighter in women’s mixed martial arts, Cris Cyborg, and two-time Olympic gold medalist in boxing Claressa Shields recently sparred in Los Angeles. Cyborg brought ‘T-Rex’ into her gym in preparation for her featherweight title fight at UFC 214 on July 29.
Shields posted a small clip on her social network.
https://twitter.com/Claressashields/status/879123182149447680
Shields even did some cross training!
https://twitter.com/criscyborg/status/879734828123398145
Then in a kitchen table interview with Magical Ray Elbe, Shields discussed Cyborg’s potential as a boxer.
“I looked at (Cyborg’s films) and I was like ‘ok, I see a few things that I wanna tell her to work on,’ and then, the best way to learn is from experience, said Shields as transcribed by Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting. “From today, she’d be a great transition in over to boxing. It would be not be hard for you. A year of just training in boxing, six months, you’ll able to take on some of the top girls.
“She’s physically strong, physically fast, very athletic. Only thing, you just gotta work on the whole breathing thing. I think MMA and boxing is like swimming and running, especially when it comes to breathing. Cris is strong, she’s fast.
With some training, Shields believes Cyrborg would be very competitive vs. 31-0 WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus.
“It’d be a heck of a match-up between her and Cris, said Shields. “That would be a really good fight. Wouldn’t be like Cecilia Braekhus would just have in the bag. And long as Cris is in shape, gets the boxing down and be focused on it, it would be very, very competitive.”
Cyborg does not just cross train, which every fighter does, she cross competes. Cyborg won two gold medals at the Mundials, a bronze medal at the ADCCs, and in 2014 she lost a Muay Thai decision to arguably the best women in the sport – Jorina Baars.
“It’s really hard from MMA because you have to train and mix everything, you train jiu-jitsu, you can’t focus in one thing, said Cyborg. “Imagine with one year, just training boxing, I think it would be really nice. I’m interested, maybe one day.”
“I already did competition in just Jiu-Jitsu, already did competition just Muay Thai, I did just wrestling, and one thing that I never did was one boxing fight. I went to Thailand and made the Muay Thai camp, just Muay Thai, and I lived Muay Thai every day there. I think you get better experience, you learn a lot of things.
“If I go to [Shield’s] gym, where she’s training just boxing, I think I’m gonna learn a lot of things, a lot of experiences, and to improve my game and better better, for me it would be amazing. I told her, after my fight I’m gonna be with her and train every day and follow her, and learn.
Cyborg will fight for the featherweight belt vs. Tonya Evinger at UFC 214.
