Savannah Marshall might now have to drop the ‘Silent Assassin’ moniker.
The unbeaten Hartlepool fighter, once famous for her shyness and her preference to do her talking inside the ropes, dropped her verbal guard on Saturday to indulge in a war of words with arch-rival Claressa Shields.
Just minutes after the American legend had extended her winning run to 12 fights with a dominant IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight points victory over Ema Kozin, Marshall was at ringside for what proved to be one of the scraps of the night in Cardiff.
“If you perform like that against me, I’ll absolutely wipe the floor with you,” taunted Marshall.
Shields retorted: “I ain’t no punk, I’m not scared of you. Win on March 12 and I’ll wipe the floor with you.“
The pair went at it for a good minute, Marshall mocking Shields for “fighting a child” and saying “people were walking out after five rounds – It was embarrassing. I’ll stop you.“
“I can’t wait,” responded Shields. “I’ll give you so much hell bum.”
The referee, in this case, the excellent Sky Sports man Andy Scott, stepped in to stop the squabble before it could escalate.
Sensible refereeing.
The aim for promoters BOXXER and Sky Sports is to stage the real war in June.
It had been hoped that each would have their own title defences on the undercard of the Chris Eubank-Liam Williams grudge match at the Motorpoint Arena … how boxing promoters love a fight with a little edge to it!
Shields, an incredible talent who has two Olympic gold medals to her name, took care of the Slovenian Kozin comfortably while Marshall must wait until March 12 to defend her WBO belt against Belgium’s Femke Hermans.
Savannah had pretended to fall asleep during Shields v Kozin and while Claressa put a few dents in her opponent, she could not put her down.
For all her ability, she carries little power, having only two KO wins on her record.
There is no shortage of dynamite in the Marshall fists, having stopped nine of her 11 victims, including her last seven.
Click here to watch Saturday’s Sky Sports squabble.
Should the Peter Fury-trained boxer get past the challenge of Hermans at the Vertu Arena in Newcastle next month, it should be all systems go for a summer showdown, according to Ben Shalom, the boss of BOXXER.
“Claressa calls herself the greatest woman of all time but, sorry, you have a loss on your record and it’s Savannah Marshall,” he said.
“I think Savannah is the only girl who has what it takes to beat Claressa.
“It’s up to me and Dmitry Salita [Claressa’s promoter] to make the greatest women’s fight of all time.
“Hoping for June, let’s see.”
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Lawrence Lusting/ BOXXER
