Boxing star Claressa Shields was in attendance at UFC 245 and while Nunes isn’t interested in boxing her, an invitation has been given by the champion to Shields to enter the world of professional MMA.
“I’m an MMA fighter. Why she wants to take me from my sport?” Nunes said at the UFC 245 post-fight news conference (via Farah Hannoun & Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie). “If she wants to fight me, come to my world. It doesn’t make any sense. I respect her as a boxer, but I’m an MMA fighter. I don’t like to fight boxing. I like MMA. I like what I did today. If she handles that for five rounds, come see me.”
Nunes says that if she were to face Shields in the Octagon, fans would see a takedown heavy offense against the boxing star.
“She saw tonight. I think she’s not gonna want anything to do with this,” Nunes said. “She wants to see me, I’m going to wrestle the (expletive) out of you and finish you with a jiu-jitsu submission. I want to see how she’s going to feel.”
The boxer did say that would need around a year to prepare for a potential MMA debut, meaning a fight against Nunes wouldn't material until late 2020 or early 2021.
