Saturday’s undisputed middleweight world title fight against Claressa Shields will be the biggest moment of Savannah Marshall’s career — and she admits she may never reach the same heights again.
The English boxer faces Shields for all four world titles at the O2 Arena in London (ESPN+, 2:30 p.m. ET), in what has been described as one of the biggest fights in the history of women’s boxing.
But Marshall fears it could be a bittersweet moment for her.
After facing Shields — win or lose — WBO champion Marshall sees no potential fight to match it.
WBC, IBF, WBA champion Shields is already juggling boxing with a career in mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Michigan native is expected to return to the cage later this year for her third MMA outing.
While Shields (12-0, 2 KOs) has won world titles at welterweight and junior middleweight level, as well as middleweight, dropping down a weight class is not an option for Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs), who is 5-foot-11.
“I don’t hate her, she just gets on my nerves a bit,” Marshall, 31, told ESPN.
“Before I got the world title, who would want to box me when you have got a high percentage of getting knocked out? For instance, I spent three years trying to get hold of Ema Kozin.
“She didn’t want anything to do with me but then took a fight with Claressa — why? Because you could go 10 rounds with her and not get knocked out, coming out without a scratch [Shields beat Kozin by unanimous decision in February 2022]. But, if you box me, you have got a high chance of getting knocked out.
“After I beat Claressa Shields, there’s no one else in this division and I can’t go to junior middleweight, so I can only go higher to super middleweight and light heavyweight. There aren’t the names in those divisions like the lighter weight…
Source : espn
