One of the most anticipated women’s boxing matches is set, as Claressa Shields battles Savannah Marshall.
The undisputed middleweight title will be on the line September 10 from The O2 Arena in London.
The encounter will bring to a head a decade-long rivalry which began in their amateur days and has continued to intensify ever since. With both securing 12 wins from their 12 professional fights, this 13th showdown will prove to be unlucky for one.
Shields is the reigning WBA, WBC and IBF champion, while Marshall holds the WBO strap.
Shields is no stranger to undisputed status. She held all four middleweight belts between 2019 and 2020, then repeated the feat at light-middleweight to become the first and only boxer ever to hold the four major titles in two weight classes simultaneously.
Her outstanding career also includes two Olympic gold medals, won at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Her perfect professional record is mirrored by an almost-perfect amateur record: her only ever loss inside a boxing ring came at the hands of Savannah Marshall.
That 2012 encounter ended with Marshall taking a decisive 14-8 points win, sparking one of the most bitter rivalries in today’s sporting landscape and making this one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of recent memory.
The chief support slot of this historic card is a bout presented in association with Top Rank which will see WBO and IBF world champion Mikaela Mayer and WBC champion Alycia Baumgardner face off in a unification bout in the 130-pound division.
“I don’t hate nobody but I really do have a huge dislike for her. My grandmother told me not to use the word hate so I won’t use it, but I don’t like Savannah and she’s one of my biggest haters,” Shields told the assembled media at today’s press conference.
“They’re saying she’s a big knockout puncher, she’s the only blemish on my record as an amateur, that she has the recipe to beat me. My job is to show that she doesn’t and that I don’t reign supreme in three different weight classes for no reason. If she was better than me, she’d be the one supreme in three different weight classes, not me.”
Marshall fired back, “I’m actually a fan of Claressa Shields, she’s a pioneer and what she has done for the sport has been amazing. But the reality is, she doesn’t beat me. She didn’t before and she won’t again. And it kills her, it absolutely burns her inside, the fact that I beat her and I’ll beat her again. I’m not just going to beat her, I’m going to outbox her. I’m going to hurt her.
“This fight has been a long time coming but we’re here now and September 10 I will be the new middleweight champion of the world.”
