Boxing-MMA cross over encounters have become a trend now as rumors of another mega match-up have surfaced. Olympic gold medalist and the undisputed female middleweight champion of the world, boxer Claressa Shields has expressed the desire to try her hand at MMA in a fight with against UFC women's 'champ-champ' Amanda Nunes. (h/t MMA Fighting)
In a recent interview with TMZ, Shields' promoter Dmitriy Salita said that he thinks the boxer could be seen fighting Nunes inside the Octagon sometime next year.
Now, UFC president Dana White himself has spoken on the matter, addressing a possible move from Boxing to MMA for Shields. He also confirmed that Shields will be sitting cage side on Saturday when Nunes fights Germaine de Randamie for the UFC women's bantamweight title. Speaking to BT Sport, White said,
“Claressa Shields is coming. She’ll be here Saturday to watch the fight. She’s coming to watch the fight, and I will be honest with you, Claressa Shields’ people and I have talked. I don’t know, we’ll see. We’ve talked. I know they’re both interested in it, too. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. We have a lot of respect for her, too, and she’s going to come to the fight and should be fun.”
White also said that even if the match-up with Shields does not work out, he isn't worried about lack of opponents for Nunes.
“You never run out of opponents. Anderson Silva went on a run for a very long time, never ran out of opponents. There’s always somebody. There’s always going to be somebody next.”