You’ll be a world champion. That’s the message from Eddie Hearn to Savannah Marshall after watching her brutal assault on Ashleigh Curry in Newcastle.
Super Savannah extended her winning run to eight bouts with a third-round stoppage of the American on the Bad Blood show.
It was her second fight for Hearn and Sky Sports after an impressive debut for her new promoters at the 02 in the summer.
And Hearn told punch-lines the wait for a world super-middleweight title shot will soon be over.
“Savannah needs a test, but there is no test from where she currently is to world title level, “ he said. “And because there is no level in between then she must really go for it.
“She has to go for a world title and I’ll deliver that for her, absolutely.
“Savannah’s a very talented fighter, great amateur pedigree, punches hard, something you don’t often see in the women’s game, and she’ll go and win the world title.”
The Hartlepool boxer needed less than five minutes to bury the disappointment of not getting a WBA world eliminator at the event at the Utilita Arena.
Her experienced opponent, from Missouri, arrived with a very respectable record and a reputation for toughness.
But Marshall was irrepressible in this international encounter which had been scheduled for 10 rounds.
It almost lasted just one. Near the end of the first, the Peter Fury-trained star hurt Curry to the body and proceeded to rain in 28 unanswered shots before Stewart Lithgo’s bell sounded.
Round two produced more spiteful punches, a right to the head, a left to the body and a left-right-right combination, followed by more sustained violence at the end of the session with Ashleigh bravely hanging on, just.
It was surely only a matter of time and so it proved.
The former world amateur champion went to work to the head and body in the third in the away corner and with Curry’s trainer waving the towel, referee Ron Kearney decided he had seen enough anyway and called it off at the 47-second mark.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Jennifer Charlton
