Brittney Elkin is confident her more well-rounded MMA game is going to be the difference in her fight against Claressa Shields.
Elkin will be Shield’s first MMA opponent after the latter transitioned from the boxing world in an attempt to replicate the success she had in boxing. They face each other at PFL 4 tomorrow night. Elkin is returning to the cage after briefly retiring in 2019.
In a recent interview with Low Kick MMA, Elkin expressed that she believes that her veteran savviness and experience in MMA will play a big factor in their fight, focusing on what she does best in the sport.
“It’s a distance game here. I don’t want to be in her distance, and I want to keep her inside (mine),” Elkin told Low Kick MMA. “I want to be inside or outside of it. A lot of the focus of this camp is getting to what Brittany does best and like, how do we get there safely? How do we get there the most safe? You know, and we set up the camp that way.”
Elkin also believes her superior ground game against Shields will play a key role in the fight, openly revealing that she will be looking to implement her style in the fight. She is well aware of how good Shields’ striking is, given that she is a two-time boxing Olympian.
“I obviously would love to get her on the ground,” said Elkin. “I think once I get ahold of her, I think she’s going to have a real hard time getting away. So those are the things I’m kind of going into aware that these are truths. These are truths, you know. I’ve tested these truths on different things and I believe in them. So, yeah, I want to grab a hold of her. I mean, I want to get my hands on her. I’m not going to stay on (my feet) and try to be an Olympic boxer today.”
Nevertheless that doesn’t mean Elkin will be disregarding her striking skills but will be looking to mix her striking and grappling skills that she has developed over the years. In fact she is feeling confident about her striking despite her opponent’s pedigree in boxing.
“But I do feel very confident in the striking that I have,” said Elkin. “It’s not Claressa striking. It’s not, like the exact same. So I’m going to use those things that I’ve skilfully developed over a long time and tried to just be really in the moment, in the game of seconds and inches.”
Elkin will be looking to use her vast MMA experience to bring Shields into deep waters, somewhere the multiple boxing champion has never been.
“I hope that I can bring her into the deep, scary forest where she’s never seen,” said Elkin. There’s no map there for her. I think that everybody has a map of like, where these moves go to and I want to take her somewhere she’s never been. I think it’s really hard to figure out those things in the first and second round.”
“I’ve definitely been hit before. So I’m going to try to avoid being hit, especially by power shots. Avoid being led into her game by her tactics.”
