Claressa Shields defeats Savannah Marshall by unanimous decision

Claressa Shields jumped up and down in the ring, having gone to the United Kingdom to fight a British fighter and still come out of the toughest bout of her career as the undisputed middleweight champion of the world.

Again.

Shields beat Savannah Marshall by unanimous decision (97-93, 96-94, 96-94) in London on Saturday to become the undisputed middleweight champion for the second time after holding all four belts in 2019 and 2020 as well.

By beating Marshall, Shields also made up for the only loss of her career in boxing — Marshall defeated her as an amateur a decade ago in a fight Shields believed she won — and in doing so established herself as arguably the best woman boxer ever.

“It’s not just a special moment for me, it’s a special moment for women’s boxing,” Shields said in a postfight interview in the ring. “Savannah Marshall, Alycia Baumgardner, Mikaela Mayer, Caroline Dubois. I mean, women’s boxing has been around for so many years and so many great stuff happened before us.

“But here we are, in front of 20,000 fans in London at O2 Arena, and I think that’s fight of the year. I’m just so happy and it’s an unbelievable moment right now.”

Shields dominated the first part of the fight, coming out with an aggressive strategy along with the technical defense she’s been known for her entire career to keep Marshall’s power at bay. Often throughout the fight, Shields leaned on the ropes, potentially as a strategy to try to tire Marshall out a little.

It seemed like Shields also found a good middle ground to work out of, perhaps as a way to negate some of the power Marshall possessed.

Shields landed more punches than Marshall in seven of the 10 rounds and landed significantly more power punches in the first half of the fight. Marshall, who rallied throughout the second half, began to land more power punches in the fifth round.