MVP bans Shields from events after Baumgardner altercation

Most Valuable Promotions has banned undisputed girls’s heavyweight champion Claressa Shields from all future events after a bodily altercation with unified girls’s junior light-weight champion Alycia Baumgardner at MVP MMA 1 over the weekend, the promotion mentioned Monday.

“Effective immediately, Claressa Shields is banned from all MVP events until further notice,” the promotion mentioned in an announcement on X. “There is a time and a place for fighter tension and banter, but to physically attack a fellow athlete while there as a guest inside a private VIP area is unacceptable.”

Shields and Baumgardner — who’ve been engaged in a confrontation over the previous couple of years — have been each on the occasion at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles after they crossed paths. Video from the occasion reveals Shields and Baumgardner trade phrases till Shields reached throughout and slapped his rival’s hand away.

“MVP maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy for hostile, threatening, or aggressive behavior toward fighters, staff, media, or guests at any of our events,” the assertion continued. “Physical altercations outside the ring or cage are unacceptable in any MVP environment. MVP does not condone, tolerate, or accept Claressa Shields’ behavior in that setting and it reflects poorly on MVP and women’s sports, which we have worked tirelessly to uplift.”

Shields took to social media after the incident, suggesting that Baumgardner was verbally aggressive and had threatened her with physicality earlier than the slap.

Baumgardner launched an announcement of his personal on Monday in response.

“The situation that occurred on Saturday was unprovoked and entirely consistent with the individual involved,” she mentioned, including that she was “physically assaulted without provocation.”

Baumgardner additionally mentioned the “situation has been and will continue to be handled legally and professionally.”