British boxer Savannah Marshall takes on American Claressa Shields this Saturday at Southeast London’s 02 arena as England’s capital city hosts the first ever all female fight card in boxing history.
Marshall 31, and Shields 27, are set to reignite their bitter decade-long rivalry which started when they were both amateurs and Marshall beat Shields at the 2012 World Championships. On Saturday both fighters will head the historic fight card and compete against each other to become the undisputed female middleweight champion of the world.
The contest was originally set to take place last month on September 10th but was cancelled due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Unification is the aim
Claressa ‘The GWOAT’ Marshall is set to put all her championship belts on the line in order to acclaim the one missing belt that she desperately desires in order to unify the division. The American born star holds the WBA, WBC and IBF 160lbs tiles while Marshall holds the WBO belt.
The GWOAT?
Shields won Gold in the women’s middleweight division at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. The three-time world champion holds a professional record of 12-0-0 with two of her wins coming by knockout. The ‘GWOAT’ also boasts a dominant and impressive amateur record of 77-1, her only defeat as either an amateur or professional came against Saturday nights opponent.
Shields insists that the defeat at the 2012 World Championships is a wrong that she needs to put right stating during a seated face between the pair, “… that one blemish and she’s sitting here and I want to show her that, yeah, you beat me when I was 17. But I’m 27 now and I’ve grown a lot since I was 17. Mentally and physically, and I just want to keep proving I’m the best.”.
The ‘Silent Assassin’
Savannah Marshall like her opponent also holds a professional fight record of 12-0-0 although a staggering 10 of her victories have come via knockout. Her calm and relaxed attitude combined with her brutal and explosive power has her labelled the ‘Silent Assassin’
Marshall begun boxing aged 12, sparring against the boys as there were no girls training at her local boxing gym, Hartlepool Headland club. As an amateur Marshall won Middleweight gold at the 2012 World Championships in Qinhuangdao and Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth games. She participated at Rio’s 2016 Olympics but lost controversially at the quarter final stage after entering the competition as favourite for gold.
In 2017 Marshall signed to Mayweather Promotions and made her debut on the undercard of the ‘Money Fight’ between five division boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and UFC hardman Conor McGregor.
Speaking ahead of Saturday night’s fight Savannah said, “I believe I’m a better boxer than Claressa and believe I always have been. Saturday couldn’t come quick enough; I’m just itching to get in there now.’
Eyeballs
The striking differences in personality, animosity and constant arguing between the fighters has led to compelling viewing during the build-up to fight night with Ben Shalom, 28, BOXXER promoter, speaking to Sky Sports saying, “Whoever wins this fight is, I think, going to be the biggest name in the female sport,”
“It’s going to have that many eyeballs on it, it’s that important.
