Claressa Shields was in attendance to watch Amanda Nunes defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 245. And, if things go according to plan for the world boxing champion’s promoter, the two-division UFC women’s champion could soon return the favor.

Shields’ promoter Dmitriy Salita said that Shields’ camp will be extending an invitation to UFC featherweight and bantamweight champ Nunes to attend Shields’ light middleweight title fight against Ivana Habazin on Jan. 10, where she will attempt to be the fastest boxer to capture a world title in a third weight class.

Shields, who said she’s willing to fight Nunes in both boxing and MMA bouts, was invited by UFC president Dana White to watch “The Lioness” defend her 135-pound title against Germaine de Randamie in Las Vegas earlier this month.

And now Salita hopes Nunes will accept their invitation to watch Shields compete in the boxing ring, so the Brazilian can get a taste of her world.

“It was great for Claressa to go see Amanda fight live and that created a lot of interest,” Salita told MMA Junkie. “We’d like to invite Amanda to Claressa’s next fight, which is going to be on Jan. 10. Hopefully she can show up and see Claressa first hand. It’s a work in progress – the media is interested, the fans are interested and, from the feedback we’ve received from multiple media sources, you can see how many people will write about it.”

Nunes, who had previously been on a run of demolishing former champions via knockout, adopted a grapple-heavy approach in her rematch with de Randamie. And, in the post-fight press conference following her unanimous decision victory, Nunes said that if Shields wants to fight her, she should come to her world, rather than vice versa.

But Salita thinks that proposition is unreasonable, considering that Shields has no experience in the grappling arts. In addition, Shields would need significant time to train for what would be her first MMA fight.

“Obviously, Amanda said what she said about fighting Claressa in a UFC fight but here’s the big difference,” Salita said. “There is no part of boxing that involves wrestling, that involves grappling. A big part of the UFC is striking, and Amanda is one of the best, if not the best, striker in the women’s game. So Amanda will be in her territory being a striker fighting another striker in Claressa. In the UFC, it wouldn’t really be Claressa’s territory because she has no experience in grappling, that type of grappling or kicking or any of that stuff.”

With White looking to expand to Zuffa Boxing, and inviting Shields to a UFC event, it seems clear that the UFC is interested. But it may depend on the fans generating enough buzz to persuade Nunes to accept a boxing match with the two-time Olympic champion, but Salita is already seeing interest grow on social media.

“Even on my YouTube channel, which has many of Claressa’s fights, most of the comments have been on the Nunes clash so it’s pretty awesome that there is fan interest and the fans are responding in a positive way and something like this brings boxing fans and UFC fans together,” said Salita. “I think it’s so big that non-combat sports fans would be interested as well.”

But first, Shields has business to attend to as she takes on Habazin next month. Also on that card is Alicia Napoleon-Espinosa, who attempts to unify the women’s super middleweight world titles against Elin Cederroos, and should Napoleon-Espinosa and Shields both prevail, Salita expects them to square off next.

So, timeline-wise, Salita says we could potentially be looking at a Nunes vs. Shields boxing match by the end of 2020.

“In the ideal world, Claressa will fight Amanda sometime before the end of the year,” he said. “So I think sometime next fall, late time in fall would be the perfect time. By that time, I believe that both of these champions, the name is going to progress and grow bigger and the popularity is going to be there.

“If it happens, I believe it will be the biggest women’s match, boxing or UFC, of all time, and something in the likes of Mayweather-McGregor,” he continued. “If it can happen, it would really be tremendous, not only for the sports world, but also culturally and socially. I think it’ll have a tremendous, positive effect on the growth of women’s sports not only in the United States but throughout the whole world.”