American Top Team owner Dan Lambert believes that if the duo collided in the Octagon, it would be Nunes who would smash Shields.
“Claressa would probably get smashed,” Lambert told MMA Fighting. “I mean why didn’t Floyd [Mayweather] want to fight Conor in MMA? I give Claressa less chances of beating Amanda in MMA than I gave Conor beating Floyd [in boxing]. It’s not her sport. You can’t go a lifetime of training in boxing with no sprawling and no wrestling and no grappling. How do you expect someone like that to cross over? I guess you’ve got that one in a million miracle shot that could land. I don’t know.”
Shields did say she would face Nunes in the Octagon and then in the boxing ring, but Nunes only seems interested in an MMA bout at this time.
Lambert does admit that if Nunes did box Shields, it would be Shields that would be the favorite in that encounter.
“Claressa would be a monster favorite in a boxing match,” Lambert said. “I think Amanda’s a unique specimen with how hard she hits. As a female fighter, I think she’s kind of a unicorn when it comes to that, so I would say the gap between the two is much narrower if Amanda were to challenge a boxer than if a boxer would challenge an MMA fighter. There’s just so many ways for Amanda to win an MMA. There’s only one way for Claressa to win a boxing match. So I would think that it’s smaller, but it would still be a really, really big gap for Claressa [in boxing]. That’s all she does.”
The boxing star said she would need about a year of training before facing Nunes in the Octagon, so the potential super fight won’t be happening for quite some time.
