Episode 43: Claressa Shields, the 2x Olympic Gold medalist and pro boxing legend, on making her debut as an MMA fighter on ESPN.

Boardroom Talks

Boardroom Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship, Sports

4.4 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2012, as a high school junior from Flint, Michigan, Claressa Shields qualified for the Olympics and won a Gold medal in boxing. She won another in 2016, becoming the first US boxer to win gold at consecutive Olympic Games. As a pro, she's undefeated, and widely-regarded as the best female pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Seeking a new challenge, she's signed a deal with the Professional Fighters League and is now training for her MMA debut. On June 3rd, ESPN+ begins streaming a 4-part series about her bid to become an MMA fighter, with a live broadcast of her bout on June 10th. Her compelling story has also been the subject of a documentary, “T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold" and is being developed into a motion picture written by Oscar Winner, Barry Jenkins, to be directed by Oscar-nominee, Rachel Morrison, the cinematographer of Black Panther. In this episode, she talks to Rich and Gianni about her tough upbringing in Flint Michigan, her father's role in introducing her to boxing, her admiration for Serena Williams, and the challenges of training in multiple disciplines to prepare for her first MMA fight.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody and welcome to another boardroom out of office podcast.
0:10.0	Podcast number 43.
0:12.8	Sheesh.
0:14.0	With here, as always, my man Gianni Horell.
0:16.9	What's up?
0:17.4	What's up?
0:18.4	So 43, we kind of go back and forth giving a a jersey number for some of these episodes. 43 I definitely can't think of right off the bat. But I did notice the other night, Evan Fornier, when I was at the neck game, was wearing 94. Do you want to hear something crazy, Gianni? I'm sitting with Justin Tuck and my boy Al Palagonia. And I said, I wonder why, and Justin Tuck's incredible wife. And I said, I wonder why Evan Fornier is wearing number 94. And I said some funny shit. I'm not even going to repeat it. But then I looked it up. And before I could even Google Evan Fornier, Google already was saying, why does Evan Fornier wear number 94? It's insane, man.
0:56.1	Every time Google blows my mind, they're reading my mind, they're reading all our minds, but whatever,
1:00.7	it was helpful. I found out the answer. I think it was like 94 miles from somewhere. So it had meaning.
1:05.6	I don't even remember it, bro, after all that. But Google it yourself. Evan Fornier wears number 94, and this is episode number 43.
1:14.1	And with us today, Gianni, we got a legend.
1:17.8	We sure do.
1:19.1	It's wild, too.
1:20.2	This is like, this is a special one because we've never had a boxer on the show.
1:26.7	And we have an undefeated boxer who is trying her hand at MMA.
1:31.7	Very, very special guests.
1:33.3	I'm excited to get into this and learn about her life,
1:36.8	learn about her upcoming fight,
1:38.4	learn about just being in the Olympics at,
1:41.7	I think she was a high school junior at the time in 2012 so man just
1:46.7	honored to have her on the show she got a big fight coming up we're going to get into that
1:50.7	get into a little bit about her uh four part series that's airing a week before her fight so without
	...

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