Boxing star Claressa Shields breaks down in tears after MMA win and reveals her arm nearly ‘SNAPPED’ in nasty submission
CLARESSA SHIELDS broke down in tears after fighting back from nearly snapping her arm to win in the MMA cage.
The women’s boxing legend faced Kelsey De Santis in her third bout for the Professional Fighters League.
Claressa Shields fought through this arm bar
She started well in the opening round landing some of her trade mark combination punches.
But Shields came unstuck during grappling exchanges and struggled to break free back to her feet.
And in round two, disaster almost struck for the American, who has found so much success with her hands.
De Santis, 35, locked in a brutal arm bar and Shields, 28, looked to be in a world of trouble on the deck.
But she amazingly refused to tap and endured 40 painful seconds in the arm bar.
Shields made it to the third and final round where it was all to play for and hammered De Santis with thudding combinations.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist looked to have her opponent on the ropes several times but De Santis showed equal heart to battle on.
Shields was taken down in the closing stages to level up the round but still two of three judges scored in her favour.
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The two-weight undisputed boxing champ shed tears in the cage as she opened up on the agonising arm bar and training camp for the fight.
She said: “We had such a hard camp, it’s not easy what I’m trying to do.
“I’ve been so respectable of this sport and I’ve put a lot of hard work into this. I’m going to go back to the gym and work harder.
“I almost got my arm snapped in an freaking arm-bar. I had to fight out of that.
“I knew that I had a strong first round and I had a hard second, but I definitely won the start of the third round.
“My coaches pushed me so hard in camp, there were some days were I was holding in tears and I was considering whether to go back to the gym because it was so hard.”
Shields broke down in tears after the win
