Photo by Adam J. Dewey / Salita Promotions
Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall square off for the unified middleweight title on Saturday at London’s O2 Arena in a highly anticipated clash.
A crowd of around 20,000 was expected and the belief is that Marshall is the puncher and Shields is the boxer, but the American star is confident he will beat Marshall regardless of what type of fight it is.
When asked if she was expecting a tough or exciting fight on Saturday, Shields responded, “As a great fighter, it’s best not to think about those kinds of things.”
Then, he added: “I like to get in there and take it round by round. And that’s how I dominate my opponents. I don’t know what his game plan is. If her game plan is to try to stand there in the middle of the ring and beat me, she’ll be sleeping. If her game plan is to be smart and try to box, move, she’ll hang in there a little longer. I just know that I have prepared for everything in this fight. She doesn’t know what my game plan is, I don’t know what her game plan is, but I know we’ve both had tough training camps and I’m looking forward to fighting. If it has to be a war, it will be a war that I win. If it’s going to be a boxing match, I’m going to win the boxing match. And if it has to be both, I have to get complicated and figure some things out, I’m ready to do it all.”
Shields is 12-0 (2) and only 27 years old, despite a wide range of accomplishments including two Olympic golds and multiple world titles as a professional.
She has completed her camp in the UK and is ready to take center stage at The O2.
“I feel good,” Shields continued, “I live for moments like this. When people say it’s impossible or it’s going to be tough and Savannah Marshall has knockout power in this and knockout power in that and she’s a knockout artist, those kinds of things really get me pumped for this fight. I’ve had brutal training camps and I don’t think a woman can knock me out and I don’t think they can beat me, but people say this is my biggest challenge and here I am, and I will accept the challenge.
The disdain between the rivals is clear. Marshall beat Shields in the amateurs a decade ago, and Shields maintains that Marshall, trained by Peter Fury, has been dining there ever since. But Shields will concede to Marshall that “I think she’s good.”
Shields argues that he has battled better competition, but regardless of what they have done in the past, Shields believes his greatness will be on display in London and prove he is a notch above Savannah.
“People say the girls I fight are trash or whatever, that’s not true,” Shields said. “I think I’m great and they’re good, and how good they are is up to them, not me. I’m great despite everything.”
Then, on how personal the feud between her and the Englishwoman is, Shields explained: “I have my pros and cons about her. All this fighting at the O2 Arena is due to my hard work. I feel like she’s been given a short cut because she’s from Britain and the UK, but the black girl from America… I had to work hard, and 12 belts in, when I had a belt, I wasn’t given a opportunity like this. Me having two Olympic gold medals, they didn’t put me on a platform like this. It took me to become a two-time undisputed, a three-time division champion, a 12-time world champion and I felt like she just used the amateur win and threw it down everyone’s throat to the point where they gave her a shortcut and said, ‘What? Did you know? If you say you can beat Claressa Shields and you’re from the UK, we’ll give you the chance. But I don’t think she earned it.”
But Shields is in the UK for the fight, though she insists it’s not because of Marshall or her opponent, but because of the reverence women’s boxing has in the UK. The O2 bill is a glamorous night for women’s boxing, with champions and prospects across the board, and Shields agrees with the respect women’s sport has in Britain.
“Absolutely,” Shields admitted. “Let’s be honest, I’ve been to the biggest events on the cards and I’ve fought on some of the biggest platforms in America, but women’s boxing is not respected. So I thought I’d get here [on a huge stage] and I would be one of the pioneers, but I thought it would come before and I thought that the United States would do it first, because the United States has the best fighters. It’s what I thought. But I respect Sky Sports and Boxxer for giving women a level playing field, giving us that same promotion, giving us the spot… and that was one of the main things I didn’t get in the US. I got the main event I got the promotion, I got the good pay, but I never got a chance to show that I can fill big stadiums. I sold a 7,000-seat arena, but I never got a chance to fight at the T-Mobile Arena, and my dream is to fight there, in Las Vegas. I never had that opportunity, even though I had the Olympic belts and gold medals and titles, I just didn’t have that opportunity. But I knew women’s boxing would be here. I thought the US would do it first, but since they don’t have as much respect for women’s boxing as the UK, that’s why it’s being done here and we’re fighting in front of 20,000 at the O2 Arena.”
