Claressa Shields Takes Inspiration From 50 Cent and Bo Jackson in Her Quest for Greatness in MMA and Boxing

Claressa Shields is a world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist in boxing. The self-proclaimed ‘GWOAT’ is the current WBC, WBO IBF, WBA (super), and The Ring light middleweight titleholder. However, that was not enough for ‘T-Rex’ who wants to cement herself as the greatest female combat athlete of all time. 

In order to do so, Shields decided to test herself in an octagon. She recently made a successful PFL debut as she stopped Brittney Elkin in round three after a dominant performance. Following the win, she shared her thoughts with Stephen A. Smith.

She said, “You know what 50 Cent said, he said, ‘If I can’t do it, it can’t be done.’ So I’m trying to be boxing world champ at the same time as being the MMA world champ. So I’m not giving up boxing because all my belts are here, and I’m adding MMA because I want to add that world championship from MMA, and I want to have them at the same time.”

Shields continued, “Kind of like how Bo Jackson has been great at football and baseball, I want to do the same thing with the combat sports. I believe I am the greatest woman of all time. But right now, I’m only the greatest woman of all time in boxing. I want to be the greatest woman of all time in MMA, too.”

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What is next for Claressa Shields?

Bo Jackson is considered by many to be one of the greatest athletes of all time as he was extremely successful in not one but two sports. Jackson is still to this date, the only person to ever be named to a Pro Bowl team in the NFL and an All-Star team in MLB.

On June 10, Shields got off to the right start. However, she has a lot of ground to make up if she wants to go down as a two-sport great. Achieving world titles in boxing and MMA has been done before. Therefore, Shields can definitely replicate it. However, she would be the first to simultaneously hold titles in both sports. 

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It will be interesting to see how Shields juggles two sports at once and how far she gets in her MMA career. All that being said, if there is any female who can achieve these lofty goals, it’s Claressa Shields.