Last night in Newcastle, reigning women’s super middleweight champion Savannah Marshall won her MMA debut in what can only be described as thrilling if not too pretty fashion.
Hot on the heels of her bitter rival Claressa Shields, former WBO middleweight champ and current unified women’s champion at super middleweight Savannah Marshall has signed a multi-fight deal with Professional Fighters League, she revealed to ESPN.com.
Last night in Manchester, former WBO women’s middleweight champ Savannah Marshall edged Franchon Crews-Dezurn to become unified 168 pound champion. After an at times gruelling, physical fight, 32 year old Marshall emerged back on top of the world, a two-weight champion.
Manchester, England witnessed a huge night of boxing as Savannah Marshall emerged victorious, claiming the undisputed super-middleweight world title. The hard-fought win against Franchon Crews-Dezurn might just have opened the doors to a much-anticipated face-off with her long-standing adversary, Claressa Shields.
Savannah Marshall (13-1, 10 KOs) dethroned female undisputed super middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-2, 2 KOs) by a 10 round majority decision on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Without a great rival, a natural dance partner, a fighter, no matter how special or talented, will not be able to feature in truly memorable ring battles.
Though former WBO female middleweight champion Savannah Marshall was quite comprehensively beaten by bitter rival Claressa Shields in their big fight last October, with the unbeaten Shields unifying the 160 pound titles with her win, Marshall still believes she can beat Shields.
It could be argued that women’s boxing dominated, or at least came close to dominating, the sport of boxing this year.
Over 2m sports fans tuned in to the historic night of women’s boxing on Saturday making it the most watched women’s professional boxing event in history, and the biggest audience for a live women’s sport event ever on Sky.
A sold-out O2 Arena bore witness to a moment of sporting history on Saturday night as Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall entered the ring to bring their ten-year rivalry to an end in the most anticipated female fight of all time.