Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced this past May that Claressa Shields had been banned from its events after her altercation with the MVP-promoted Alycia Baumgardner, in which Shields was alleged to have struck Baumgardner in the face.
Although separated by several weight classes, pound-for-pound stars Shields and Baumgardner have repeatedly clashed in recent years and have even discussed a potential fight. Their bad blood doesn’t appear to be dying down anytime soon — and neither does the tension between Shields and women’s boxing’s leading promoter.
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“I don’t care [about MVP],” Shields, women’s boxing’s undisputed heavyweight champion, said bluntly on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “Wynn Records [Shields’ co-promoter] over here. MVP is the [opponent] of me. I’m not in support of them. I support the girls [with MVP], but I don’t care about MVP, and they know that.”
“I’m not banned from boxing,” Shields added in response to MVP’s banning. “I can go to any boxing event I want to go to. Either way [that] goes, [MVP has] always been against the Claressa Shields brand and the Claressa Shields story, and has always tried to discredit me. And that’s fine, but I am No. 1 in women’s boxing — pound-for-pound No. 1 — making a whole lot of money, undefeated.”
Shields became one of boxing’s most sought-after free agents this past year after her deal with longtime promoter Salita Promotions expired. Shields had talks with multiple entities, including Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and her adversary, Paul’s MVP, but ultimately agreed to a two-year deal with Salita and Wynn Records worth $8 million.
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“Who doesn’t want to sign the GWOAT [Greatest Woman Of All Time]?” Shields asked rhetorically of MVP’s approach. “The brand stands for itself. They can say what they want to say, ‘Oh, she’s not likable. We this, we that.’ [The] Claressa Shields brand is strong.
“Everybody wants to sign Claressa Shields, so of course [they made me an offer]. I mean, that’s a smart business move [from MVP]. People go in business with folks they don’t like all the time. It’s not nothing new.”
Signing with MVP would’ve made it easier to make some of the more enticing matchups for Shields, including a fight with fellow Michigan resident Baumgardner, which would be a major event. After all, they are both pound-for-pound fighters, the two biggest U.S. stars in women’s boxing, and there’s certainly no love lost between the pair.
Shields, however, has no interest in talking about a matchup with the super featherweight champion.
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“I don’t know who that is,” Shields said of her rival. “… I just hate when girls run their mouth, that’s it. … If a girl doesn’t weigh 154 [pounds] or above, I don’t think that nobody who does interviews with me should ask me about girls who are at lower weight classes who are not willing to come to at least 154 for a fight.
“So that’s my way of just avoiding that whole conversation and narrative. … I’m not about to keep talking about somebody who only fought one weight class and doesn’t take the best challenges. That doesn’t make sense to keep doing anymore.”
The public account of Shields’ altercation with Baumgardner in May was hardly favorable to Shields. MVP described her alleged behavior as “intolerable,” claiming that Shields became physical outside of the ring, which “reflects poorly” on women’s sports. Baumgardner said Shields’ alleged assault was unprovoked and “entirely consistent with the individual involved.” She also said she was exploring legal options.
Shields bristled at what she viewed as an attempt to assign her sole responsibility for the confrontation.
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“People paint out these narratives, and then they put out all this — first of all, the fake and the false press release about the whole ban thing,” Shields began. “… It was like, I just walked up and this happened. It’s like, no, tell the truth. They’re liars over there. They’re liars. And they do that because my brand is so strong.
“Jake Paul said, ‘Yeah, she’s a great fighter, but no one likes her.’ How can you say that no one likes me and I got 1.8 million followers? 1.8 million people like me, and that’s on Instagram; 215,000 people like me on YouTube, and 500,000-600,000 like me on Facebook. You talk all this stuff [but] look, you don’t like me. Keep that s*** between you.
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“Don’t try and recruit all your people who support you or like you and be like, ‘Hey, you guys, we all don’t want to like this one girl right here. Let’s talk about her. Let’s make her look bad. Let’s talk about how she trash talks and how she’s mean and how yeah, she’s a great fighter, but she did this.’
“Like they lied and said that I celebrated Shadasia [Green] having a brain bleed. No, I celebrated Lani Daniels whooping Shadasia’s ass without us even knowing it was a brain bleed in play — that’s what I celebrated. I didn’t celebrate that she could never box again because of her brain bleed, but they wanted to make it seem like that when that’s not even the case. I like Shadasia.”
MVP and Baumgardner have not been the only targets for Shields. She’s reserved some of her sharpest criticism for former UFC, Bellator and PFL champion Cris Cyborg.
Claressa Shields (left) is one of the top fighters in women’s boxing.
(Richard Pelham via Getty Images)
“What a bum,” Shields said of Cyborg. “She’s offering me $2 million for a fight? She can’t even pay herself $2 million [and she’s] talking about [how] she’s offering me $2 million. Cris Cyborg can’t box.
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“I don’t know why she’s on this, ‘I want to fight against Claressa Shields,’ but when I made you the offer to fight at ’54 [pounds], you were like, ‘Come down to ’47 [pounds] and wear eight-ounce gloves and all this other bull crap.'”
Shields then revisited a previous sparring session between the two, claiming they had agreed to six rounds but Cyborg stopped after just four.
“I beat the s*** out of her,” Shields said. “Like literally, and I wasn’t even trying. I didn’t have a mouthpiece or nothing. … I was coming down there to show her some boxing stuff, but she was like, ‘You want to get in the ring and spar?’ I said, ‘I spar with anybody. How many rounds?’ And they said six. I didn’t even have a coach or nothing, and I kicked her ass. And then she quit at four rounds.”
Shields alleged that Cyborg’s team later asked for the footage to be edited to make the session appear more competitive.
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“She’s like a deer in the headlights the fourth round,” Shields continued. “She was damn near begging me not to knock her out, not to stop her. We supposed to go six rounds, we went four.’
“Girl, I can fight you with one hand and beat the dogs*** out of you.”
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