Claressa Shields survived on the ground long enough to capitalize her victory in the professional MMA debut when she rallied to defeat Brittney Elkin in June.
Ahead of her second pro MMA fight Wednesday at the 2021 PFL Championship event, Shields (1-0) thinks her time spent at Jackson Wink MMA in recent weeks will pay off.
“It’s always the ground game,” Shields said at a pre-fight media day Monday. “It’s always adding more to my offensive arsenal. It’s not just defensive ground game but also offensive ground game stuff. Then, also, too, you’ve got to fix the mistakes that happened in the first fight.”
Claressa Shields won’t fight on the undercard of a fighter who didn’t earn their main event spot.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/ZHScQmiTTN
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 25, 2021
“(We looked at) how I could have a better IQ when they’re going for a takedown and things of that nature,” Shields said. “We fixed that first before we actually started getting ready for Abigail.”
“I was live rolling in jiu-jitsu last week and somebody was like, ‘It looks like you’re a blue belt,’” Shields said. “I was like, ‘What the hell? No, (I’m) not a blue belt. It takes three years to get there, so don’t do that.’ But I know I’m definitely learning to where I understand it, and I know what I’m doing.”
2021 PFL Championship takes place Wednesday at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla.