Unsurprisingly, Dana White has a ton of respect for Claressa Shields and none for Jake Paul.
While Shields is currently competing for the PFL and not the UFC, White still has a tremendous amount of respect for her. In fact, after her first ever pro defeat, dropping a split decision to Abigail Montes, he was still incredibly supportive of the pro boxing champion.
Speaking in a recent interview with MMA Fighting, White had immensely high praise for Shields, simply to cross over from boxing to MMA. Then for her to lose but have one judge thinking she won the fight, he says that is worthy of respect too.
“Nothing but respect for Claressa Shields. To be looked at as the best female boxer, and to come over here and start training and start to do this, not easy and nothing but respect for her. She lost a split decision… which is even more impressive that in her second fight she loses a split decision, which means one of the judges thought she won the fight. So nothing but respect for her, and she should just keep plugging along, keep training, and keep doing what she’s doing, and she’s a very talented, gifted athlete. Crazy that anybody’s saying anything to her,” White said.
Dana White took it a bit further when he heard that Jake Paul was one of the crazy people who was criticizing Claressa Shields. The two had been going back and forth for a while, but the UFC bossman thought it was crazy that someone with Paul’s resume would diss someone like Shields, saying that he hopes she knocked the YouTuber turned boxer out.
“(Jake Paul) better be careful. She might knock him out. She might knock him out actually, he better be careful… So Jake Paul calls Claressa Shields a loser? Claressa Shields is nothing but a winner who actually fought real people, in her own weight class, in her own age, in her own sport, and then goes over to MMA and tries to win a world title. That’s not a loser, that’s a winner. When are you going to start fighting somebody your own fucking age, your own weight, that actually fights in your own fucking sport that you’re claiming you’re in? Shut the fuck up, you goofball. For you to call Claressa Shields a loser is fucking unbelievable… I hope he runs into her somewhere and she knocks him the fuck out.”
With the amount of praise that Dana White has for Claressa Shields, it does make one wonder if he will ever try to sign her to fight in the UFC. At least that way, she does not have to worry about fighting on the undercard of a Jake Paul fight.
