Claressa Shields beaten by Abigail Montes in her second MMA fight

Shields found herself on the wrong end of a split decision after being out-wrestled by her Latin American opponent. 

The three-weight world boxing champion made an impressive start to her MMA career after an impressive TKO win in June, but she has now tasted defeat in what is just the second loss of her combat sports career as both an amateur or professional. 

Speaking to ESPN after the fight, Shields realised where improvements needed to be made.

"I did better in there. I did pretty good on the cage," Shields said. 

"It was always the ground stuff. Gotta get better at defending the takedown and stuff. The game plan was to just do better than my last fight. Of course to win [also], but do better."

"It continues to show us what we need to work on, and I worked damn hard in camp. I knew I would look better. It was the last round that did it for me. She went for the god damn takedown and I didn't respond quick enough."

Shields is now expected to be return to the boxing ring on December 11th before facing Savannah Marshall in what would be the biggest fight in women's boxing early next year.

Watch Claressa Shields discuss whether she could beat Jake Paul below.