Claressa Shields’ manager angrily responded late Thursday night to her home state’s regulatory agency labeling the four-division champion “an imminent threat to the integrity of professional boxing.”

Mark Taffet, a former HBO Sports executive who has managed Shields throughout her pro career, deemed the Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission’s comments about his fighter “absurd” in a statement posted to his Facebook account. Taffet took issue with what the Michigan commission told Sky Sports on Thursday related to Shields’ suspension stemming from a positive test for marijuana following her 10-round, unanimous-decision defeat of previously undefeated Danielle Perkins on February 2 at Dort Financial Center in her hometown of Flint.

Shields (16-0, 3 KOs) adamantly denied using marijuana. Performance-enhancing drug expert Victor Conte – whose company, SNAC, handles Shields’ strength and conditioning and supplement intake – stated on social media last week that Shields’ failed test “likely would have come from second-hand smoke in the arena.”

The inside of Shields’ mouth was swabbed by a commission tester, according to Conte, after she dropped Houston’s Perkins (5-1, 2 KOs) in the 10th round on her way to a wide win on all three scorecards (100-89, 99-90, 97-92). Conte also noted that urine is a more common sample used to test for marijuana.

“Ms. Shields’ conduct as a licensed professional boxer constitutes an imminent threat to the integrity of professional boxing, the public interest, and welfare and safety of professional athletes,” the Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission commented in the aforementioned statement.

Even if Shields smoked marijuana every day, it is unclear how that would make her an imminent threat to the welfare and safety of professional athletes.

Marijuana is not considered a performance-enhancing drug. It is, however, on the Michigan commission’s list of banned substances, though that is not the case in most of the United States.

“It is absurd that Michigan would say this PRIOR to our due process hearing with them,” Taffet wrote on Facebook. “Harmful, dangerous, horrifically inappropriate statement by a government [agency] prior to a hearing. I am incredulous. We have very relevant impactful information to share with Michigan. We respect the process … why don’t they?”

Shields, 29, became boxing’s first undisputed women’s heavyweight champion by beating Perkins in a main event DAZN streamed worldwide. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was previously the fully unified champion in the junior middleweight and middleweight divisions and was a unified super middleweight champ.

The Ring rates Shields as the No. 1 fighter in women’s boxing on its pound-for-pound list. The life story of the self-professed “GWOAT,” an acronym for “Greatest Woman Of All Time,” is depicted in a motion picture, “The Fire Inside,” that was released in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day.

Keith Idec is a staff writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.