With goal to fight Amanda Nunes on hold, Claressa Shields focuses on community

The fastest pro boxer to ever win belts in three divisions is now more frequently racing through grocery stores to minimize her exposure to the coronavirus.

Claressa Shields, the two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist with a boundless future, suddenly finds her most important duty to be a loving aunt, babysitting her 6- and 2-year-old nephews because her sister is in her eighth month of pregnancy.

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One month ago, the Flint, Mich., native was ready to begin training for another title defense while also envisioning a potential boxing-MMA showdown with UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes.

Career glamour is no longer on Shields’ mind, though, as the 25-year-old has embraced her domestic and social responsibilities.

“I like to be with my family, especially during this time,” Shields told The Athletic while heading to babysitting.

Another of Shields’ sisters, older sibling Michelle, and an aunt of the champion fighter’s best friend, have been diagnosed as positive for the coronavirus, forcing both to be quarantined.

“They’re having flu-like symptoms and have got a whole bunch of medicines,” Shields said. “I know it’s real.”

Michigan is especially reeling, as the state’s death toll eclipsed 700, with active cases over 17,000 as of Monday afternoon, while state officials brace for a peak predicted by early next week.

Shields was immediately touched by the virus panic early last month in Spain while serving as a television analyst for the Olympic Channel in its boxing coverage of the Asian Games. Local schools went on lockdown, and with Shields due to fly home a few days later, President Donald Trump ordered Americans abroad in Europe to return within 24 hours.

She was able to scurry and change her flight, and instead of later heading to Florida to train for her now-postponed May 9 super welterweight unification meeting against IBF champion Marie Eve Dicaire (17-0), Shields remained home near Flint.

“I’d been like everyone else — at home, lying in bed, not doing much, because time is still and I don’t even know what day of the week it is or what time it is,” Shields said. “I haven’t cared, because my life can’t go forward unless the coronavirus is over and life goes back to normal.”

To know Shields is to understand she can’t sit still for long.

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It became quickly obvious that she wanted to provide inspiration to those suffering and in seclusion.

As a board member of GENYOUth, a foundation with the goal of “empowering students to create a healthy, high-achieving future,” Shields has distributed social media messages urging national support for the program’s effort to help the estimated 30 million schoolchildren whose dependence on school-meal programs has been altered by remote learning.

And after feeling the malaise of isolation-caused despair herself, Shields is distributing a series of “Train Like a Boxer” YouTube videos aimed to make the downtime useful by maximizing personal fitness.

“We could all use some training now,” Shields said. “They asked me to make a video with life at this pause, so I’m just trying to play my part with everyone in the house.”

Shields (10-0, 2 KOs), who captured her third belt Jan. 10 with a unanimous decision victory over Ivana Habazin, inserts her own brand of inspiration and humor during the video sessions.

At the conclusion of stretches and situps, she asks the viewer, “Was that easy?” and quickly answers, “It’s easy.” She sets up cones for a foot-shuffling exercise but then considers not all those watching may have such access to the equipment.

“Two cones, two cups or two bowls: I’m not too bougie,” she says.

She encourages all to drink water and hot tea and to take vitamin C to boost their immunity to the coronavirus. As the workout extends, she advises, “Don’t even look at the finish line until you get there.”

It’s this version of Claressa Shields that those closest to her adore. She was there to support her community before, advocating for governmental support as Flint, Mich., endured its contaminated-water crisis.

Then came the October attack of Habazin’s trainer, James Ali Bashir, by Shields’ brother, Artis Mack, before the fighters’ weigh-in. Bashir was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain bleed while Mack was arrested. Last month, he pled guilty to misdemeanor aggravated assault, receiving a one-year jail sentence.

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Shields has worked to put the incident behind her and said her goal is to stand as an uplifting figure.

“The workouts have been made so they’re not too hard for the average person, so I don’t know how many boxers will tune in and do my workout,” she cracked. “They’re for those people who’ve put on a few pounds because of the quarantine. I’m telling them, ‘This is something you can do to get your heart rate up, to sweat a little bit, to start your day.’

“The mindset is to get up and move and work out. I’ve found it’s motivating myself, too, knowing that a lot of people are watching this, commenting on it and sharing it.”

In regard to her combat-sports career, Shields remains hopeful that she will box Dicaire by year’s end. In turn, she could then achieve some bargaining success for that proposed boxing-MMA double-dip against Nunes, which should prove especially compelling given how each has dominated her sport.

Nunes, 31, has knocked out champions Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm in the UFC and added two wins over dominant flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko. Her finishes of Rousey and Cyborg seem especially relevant, considering both opponents invested significant training time to boxing and were both decked by Nunes’ punches.

It’s not difficult to make a case that Shields-Nunes in the ring and octagon would be far more competitive than either the novelty Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor boxing match of 2017 or a suggested boxing match between the older Cyborg and unbeaten unified welterweight boxing champion Cecilia Braekhus.

Shields said her ideal plan is to box first and then enter the cage for an MMA fight. But Nunes “needs to be willing to do both.”

“In MMA, I’m super inexperienced on the ground and it’s really not a fair fight, but I have enough heart to know that if I train and put my mind to it, I’ll whoop her ass in both,” Shields said. “I’m 25 years old. I have so much time. If I start training for that, learn and practice that stuff and get in the octagon, I’ll be more of a threat to her in the octagon than she’ll be to me in the boxing ring. It doesn’t seem like she’s up for it.”

Neither Nunes nor UFC president Dana White immediately responded to questions about their interest in such a showdown.

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Shields’ manager, former HBO executive Mark Taffet, said his fighter will turn to MMA training after boxing Dicaire. Their original timetable, he said, was to fight Nunes in the first quarter of 2021. Because of the pause in sporting events due to the coronavirus, that will need to be pushed back, though he continues to “stay in touch with Dana regularly.”

Shields says she wants both fights to happen, “even if I have to wait two years.”

“The people on the MMA side say when (Nunes) knocked out Cris Cyborg it was the best hands they’ve seen in MMA, period,” Shields said. “I’m like, ‘Get the fuck out of here.’ She knows I’m a threat, in either-or. I’m not no punk. I’m not soft at all. I’m going in there to fight her in MMA and do what I can.”

Cyborg isn’t the only big name in the combat sports world looking for a scrap with Shields. Laila Ali, the daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali and former undefeated champion, called Shields out in February during Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder 2 fight week in Las Vegas. Taffet said there are no active conversations, however.

Ali, 42, hasn’t boxed professionally since 2007.

“She thinks she’s the biggest name in women’s boxing. The truth is she isn’t. She retired 13 years ago and only had 100,000 buys against Joe Frazier’s daughter,” said Shields, who drew 420,000 viewers for her most recent Showtime main event. “Muhammad Ali is one of the great names in boxing. Not Laila Ali.

“She’s not getting 70 percent of the earnings just because her last name is Ali. Look, I have a large fan base, have been to the Olympics twice and know how to promote. I’ll get it to be as big as it can get and then get in there and tear her head off. She wants to have an excuse, to say, ‘I would’ve taken it, but they didn’t have enough money.’ I have no excuse.”

That same no-alibis sentiment reigned as Shields considered the peril of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Instead of resigning to the stress of the situation, she wants her neighbors and nation to view the downtime as an opportunity to improve physically and mentally.

“I didn’t want to pass up this opportunity,” Shields said. “I want to help as many people as I can and let them use my social media, not so much as entertainment, but to help.”

(Top photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)