‘In your dreams’: Boxing multiweight champion Claressa Shields warns MMA debut opponent Elkin over threats of a quick submission

Boxing sensation Claressa Shields, who is about to cross over to MMA, has hit out at her first octagon rival Brittney Elkin and laughed off claims that she will submit Shields on her Professional Fighters League debut next month.

Supremely confident Shields, who has said she is the second-greatest boxer to Muhammad Ali and won praise from UFC star Conor McGregor for her move to MMA, faces Elkin, who has won three and lost six of her professional fights, in New Jersey on June 10.

After catching wind of what she perceived as her opponent promising a quick, humbling finish when they meet, the ex-undisputed light-middleweight champion gave her own thoughts on the bout.

"Everybody wants the knockout, everyone wants the stoppages – but for me, I just really want the experience," Shields told TMZ.

"I want to get in there and get out as quick as possible, I'm fine with that. But if I have to go for 15 minutes and have an all-out war with Brittney Elkin, I'm fine with that.

"I saw an interview where Brittney Elkin said she wants to make me a 15-second highlight reel. Like she wants to go in there and knock me out in 15 seconds. And I was just thinking to myself, 'B*tch, in your dreams. In your wildest dreams.

"I wasn’t going to talk trash for the fight because I feel like I don't have that right because it's my first fight in MMA," she admitted – but still that didn't stop the opinionated pugilist from doing just that.

Training at Jackson Wink in Albuquerque, New Mexico – one of the most respected gyms in the world  – will make her well-prepared, and she has even managed to learn from the facility's most famous star in UFC light heavyweight great Jon Jones.

"I’ve actually spent hours working with Jon," Shields revealed. "[He's] one of the most strategic people I’ve been able to work with in MMA thus far. Holly [Holm] is very strategic too, but she’s super energetic."

Shields' latest outburst is a follow on from her recent pledge that she wasn't "scared of you MMA b*tches".

That earned admiration from McGregor, who retweeted her post and demanded: "Respect this multi-weight boxing world champion."

Shields has also claimed that "98 percent of men in the world can’t beat me". “I don't box for a hobby," Shields told Sky in March.

"It's not a hobby. It's my career, and I feel like people underestimate me when I speak about how great I am.

"But if I didn't say how great I am, no-one in this room would have ever called me great because they don't recognize it.

"Only the greats know that they're great. Like Muhammad Ali. Nobody called him the greatest of all time.

"They actually called him the ‘Louisville Lip’ because he talked too much. Muhammad Ali is first and Claressa Shields is second.

"I am the greatest woman of all time, and 98 percent of men in the world can't beat me."