Claressa Shields to work with ex-UFC champion Henry Cejudo for MMA return

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Shields will look to improve her ground game under the tutelage of former two-weight UFC champion Cejudo ahead of her PFL return next year

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Boxing champion Claressa Shields will work with former two-weight UFC champion Henry Cejudo for her next PFL fight.

Shields is planning a return to MMA next year after her undisputed middleweight title fight with Savannah Marshall was pushed back to September. The two-time Olympic gold medalist Shields launched her MMA career by signing a three-year contract with PFL in 2020.

The 27-year-old won her professional debut in the cage last June stopping Brittany Elkin at PFL 4, but suffered her first loss in the cage later that year by way of split decision. Shields has since focused on her boxing career, defending her middleweight belts against Ema Kozin in February.

Eager to polish up her ground game before returning to the cage, Shields revealed she will work with former UFC flyweight and bantamweight king Cejudo at his ‘Fight Ready’ gym in Arizona before her next fight.

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“I am going to go to train with Henry Cejudo in Arizona and spend some time there,” Shields told Mirror Fighting . “I’ll get him to improve my wrestling and jiu-jitsu skills. Just becoming a better MMA fighter, there are a few things I want to sharpen up on.

“Somebody asked me ‘if you had to create the perfect fighter, who would you create?’ Of course I’d keep myself, but I would add Cejudo, Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones and Holly Holm.

“All of them have good attributes, but Cejudo is great. He’s a two-weight UFC champion and Olympic champion in wrestling. He mastered MMA so who better to work with than him?”

Being undefeated in the ring as a professional, Shields admitted there is a lot weight on her shoulders to achieve big things in MMA. She hopes to become an undisputed champion in September by winning Marshall’s WBO title, before devoting the whole of 2023 to training MMA.

“I know I can be PFL champion one day,” she continued. “Will it be in 2023 or 2025? Who knows, but I know that if I have the time to train and get the experience I will do very well. It’s just that, I haven’t had the time yet as I’ve been in MMA for around a year.

“I haven’t been able to train as much MMA as I would like because my boxing has picked up a lot. I’m having an undisputed boxing match and then I’m fighting in the PFL.”