It might be 11 months late but Savannah Marshall’s intriguing world championship defence against Femke Hermans is finally going to happen.
And the WBO middleweight is excited to be back performing in the North-East after BOXXER and Sky Sports announced the date as Saturday, March 12, in Newcastle.
The unbeaten 30-year-old will face European title holder at the Vertu Arena, also popularly known as the Eagles rena.
Marshall and Hermans were scheduled to collide behind-closed-doors in London last April, only for a member of the Belgian’s team to test positive for Covid.
Brave late sub Maria Lindberg was swept in just over five minutes at the Copperbox Arena and Marshall followed that up with an explosive second-round stoppage of unbeaten African challenger Lolita Muzeya at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle in October.
“Femke is a very good fighter, unorthodox with an unpredictable style, and this is going to be a challenging fight,” said the Hartlepool fighter.
“It’s great to finally have a date and I can’t wait for March 19th,” said Marshall, who has been locked into a long training camp.
“Things have been a bit all over the shop – I was supposed to be fighting this month and trained all over Christmas and the New Year to be ready for it.
“But now this fight has been set I’m so excited to be fighting in the North-East again.
Hermans boasts a fine record of 12 wins against only three defeats (all in world championship bouts) and has never been stopped.
She has gone the full 10 rounds with American great and Savannah’s arch-rival, Claressa Shields, and is a former WBO champion, having defeated Germany’s Nikki Addler .
Since her points defeat to Shields at the end of 2018, Hermans was narrowly beaten in a shot at the IBF super-middleweight title before clinching the European middleweight crown on home territory in December 2020, when she outpointed Russian Luiza Davydova.
Hermans has only fought once in 2021, a knock-out of Georgia’s Lila Jumali in July.
“I’m happy with the fight,” said the unbeaten Peter Fury-trained star. “I wanted a good opponent.
“Femke has only been beaten by top girls and she’s never been stopped.
“I think she’s a lot better now than when she was when she fought Claressa.
“She was scheduled to be fighting Hannah Rankin but has knocked that back to challenge me.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Marshall won the World Boxing Organisation belt with a dominant Halloween 2020 victory over Rankin behind closed doors at Wembley.
Savannah has won all 11 of her professional contests, nine inside the distance, including the last seven in a row.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
