Name: World Champion Boxer Claressa Shields on Transitioning to MMA
Uploaded: 2021-03-17T00:02:11.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'World Champion Boxer Claressa Shields on Transitioning to MMA' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'World Champion Boxer Claressa Shields on Transitioning to MMA' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-17. Transcript available.

the Joe Rogan experience in a young life you have accomplished incredible
things
like for people that don't know you won an Olympic gold medalist at 17 and then
you won it again four years later the only American boxer ever I think like
only another sport like no boxers ever done that right in America no not from
America just me and I mean you've gone multiple weight classes and now you
consider in fighting in MMA I mean you you kind of cleared out boxing in a lot
of
ways it's always something more to be accomplished in boxing but I'm venturing
off into MMA because I really want to see in my as great as I think I am and I
think I am so I'm excited to be fighting with the PFL later on this year and
just
taking it from there see what happens well I think when someone is as good as
you are at boxing you could basically do anything you want in life you just
have
to put the same amount of focus that you put on boxing to whatever it is you
apply
yourself to yeah you know it's rare human beings that can do what you've been
able
to do it's a rare person five piece proper preparation prevents poor
performance there you go so in MMA I'm not coming over like hey I'm in boxing I'm
box all you girls up
it's like I'm at Jackson Wayne gym you know with coach Jackson I've seen you
kick the bag
I've seen you throw kicks I was very impressed I can't believe you're already
that good it's real I
was like well maybe she but you were throwing high kicks yeah I don't know they
can go up that height
so they showed me the technique up and I was like whoa this shit's insane do
you stretch all the time are you a person who like when you were boxing I mean
I know most athletes stretch but having a full split is not really
it's not really required to punch people no but you obviously have very
flexible legs I've been
doing yoga for the past few months so I was able to kick high when I first went
to Jackson
Wing Gym in December I was able to kick high but not for very long I probably
would get two or three good high
kicks now I'm like yo let's bring it down a level now from all the stretching
when they got that pad up there and they like kick it I just do the four and my
leg can go up there over and over and over again just from the stretch
and actually being a bit more flexible than what I was before so I stretch but
I stretch more serious
now what brought you into yoga um really it was the MMA fans to be honest they're
like you're gonna have to
stretch and you know people are on there you know talking trash or whatever
trolls but they were saying
like I read a lot of comments and I'm like they're like you know she's gonna
have a problem with kicking
she's not flexible her legs are big blah blah so I would read some of that
stuff and do my own research
and I'm like damn they're right so my goal for one of my new year's resolutions
was
to be able to do the splits by the end of the year so I have a yoga teacher um
and me and her go
like up on up on zoom twice a week and she's like having me do these stretches
and I'm like girl you
it's something else her name is Sakina have you done uh hot yoga ever no not
yet I heard it's brutal
though it's more of a mental thing it is brutal for sure but one good thing
about it is when you get
that hot and sweaty your muscles become really pliable and you can make really
good gains that way
like in terms of flexibility oh wow maybe I should maybe I should try it with
Sakina yeah I always find that
I'm way more flexible in uh hot yoga class than I am anywhere else you can do
the splits yeah I can do
the splits damn you're ahead of me I'm old I started when I was 15 you know so
you still do the splits your body is
like jacked up you should not be able to do the splits oh there's a guy who
fights for one FC that makes me look like
a twig his name is Elaine and golly he's okay super jacked and he's one of the
most flexible guys I've
ever seen in my life oh insanely flexible but flexible everywhere his spine is
flexible he can he can bend
over backwards standing and touch the back of his like his touch his palms to
the ground and then flip
his feet over the top his instagram is incredible because he's built like a
superhero see if you find his uh
his instagram he's built like a super I mean like a freak of nature but is
incredibly flexible
wow yeah he just puts a lot of time and dedication to flexibility you can't it
can be done it's just
there he is look at him oh wow I mean come on and when you see this guy when
you see this guy move and
you see him fight I mean do the video one so you could see him oh no no go that
one right there with
the dude with the blue shorts right in front where he head kicks his dude watch
this guy I mean you see
his his flexibility is incredible but that's one thing about the kicks though
you really have to
condition those shins for that oh yeah remember when I first started I was like
probably like five
kicks in I'm like yeah just the bag right yeah just the bag itself then when we
went up to the pads
I'm like coach do you got softer pads serious he's like champ these are my softest
ones I'm like
it takes a while it takes a while you see some people they start whacking their
shins with like
coke bottles and stuff like that just trying to toughen them up yeah they do
all kinds of things
to their shoes I can kick really hard now oh there you are look at this
seriously superman punches
everything head kicks the thing is some of this stuff I learned I learned superman
punch that same day
so when he showed me at one time we just started doing and he was like you're
doing good like I can
look at it now and tell you my mistakes right now but I'm not gonna say too
much because I fixed them
already but sometime when I threw like the head kicks my kicks would my my
hands would go down at the
same time how did you get to Jackson Winklejohn because first of all you couldn't
have picked a
better gym to to train that the one of the best gyms in the world but what what
brought you there
um actually I've always had like I believe in technique and training people may
look at me
boxing and be like oh she's just naturally fast she's naturally strong he's
like no
I am strategically smart in boxing and I have a lot of skill I may look like I'm
a beast out there but
it takes a lot of skill to land those punches body work defense which is I
probably got hit three times
my last fight well you went one of your fights what was that woman from oh god
what was her name
was your what your first world title fight she was a blonde lady Nikki Adler
yeah she went a whole
round without landing a single punch on you yeah and I I ended that fight in
the fifth round yeah you
anybody that doesn't think that you have technique just doesn't understand
boxing yeah they're they're
just like oh she's a woman you can't respond to those people you can't yeah
they're weird no you
clearly have superior technique I agree no so for MMA I was just like I already
had signed a contract with
the PFL and now I'm like okay how what do you have to do for the five piece to
play in effect and I was
like I need to get the best trainer and I just remember like in 2016 me and
Johnny Bones we were
talking at the espies and he was like yo you'd be the perfect boxer to come
over to MMA and I was like
it's true because you're really young what you're 25 now yeah I turned 26 in
two days oh boy yeah
super yeah well an early happy birthday to you thank you so that's a perfect
age because you're you still
are capable of getting elite at all the arts you're still you could get elite
at brazilian jiu-jitsu you
can get elite at striking with kicking and muay thai you you can you mean you're
young enough that
you could do all that yeah I think it's just all about like one having the
right teachers and also
getting in there and doing it but I mean having a having a body to do it like I'm
glad that I didn't
wait till I was like 35 you know 36 because then I would just be starting it'll
set me back and it'd be
like I'm going in here starting new and my body isn't even in its prime like
right now I don't think
that my body has has has peaked yet like where I've been as strong as I can be
as fast as I can be I
still think like I'm like right there I just haven't I haven't touched where I'm
like okay this is the
best my body can be at I haven't I haven't touched that yet they think a pro
athlete your prime is
somewhere between 28 and 32 I think they said because that's when your body
lines up with your brain
I was hoping it was 26. maybe it is 26. I was hoping Tyson won the world title
at 20. you know
yeah right it's like John Jones won the world title at 22. it's like you can or
is 23?
is John Jones 22 or 23? he's the youngest ever UFC champion. I feel like he was
21.
am I true? no no he wasn't 21 he was either 22 or 23 because 23 okay because
before that I think it
was Josh Barnett and he won the heavyweight title I think it was 24. you know
but there's it's you know
it's different for everybody like some people peak young some people they as
they get older they get
smarter so they understand their body better and so maybe their body doesn't
quite work as well as it did
when they were 24 but they're a better athlete at 30 or 32 just because they
know what to do and how to
do it better they understand they have a better communication with their body
but that's like
what you're doing by doing yoga and even by expanding into martial arts that's
the key it's like keeping
your body doing different things and then you understand your body more the
more different stuff
you do with it so when did you start training in mma december just december and
how often are you doing it
um i was at jackson wing gym three weeks at a time so i'll be there three weeks
go home a week come
back three weeks go home a week come back three weeks um i was doing that
because i really just
i like to just have my time where i'm at home my family my boyfriend i don't
like just training
training training training training like it should drive you crazy so i'm like
i gotta leave
so now uh starting back and after my birthday in april i'll be up in jackson
wing for three weeks but i'll
only go home weekend so i'll be there three weeks then go home for friday saturday
sunday
fight back sunday be there three weeks again until i have my actual fight so is
the plan to continue
boxing as well as fighting in mma yeah the overall goal for me is to be
champion in boxing and be a champion in
mma at the same time once that's done then i don't know what else i could
possibly do like that'd be
like the end game for me like that's it so i know i can be championing boxing
which is
very easy to do because i already accomplished so much in boxing and the girls
just can't with me in boxing
let's keep it real but mma on the other hand catch new episodes of the joe rogan
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