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.
32 year old Marshall will now, like the only woman to have defeated her at pro level, compete in both boxing and in MMA. Marshall, 13-1(10) says boxing will still come first but MMA is something she always wanted to try. Marshall says she has “dabbled ” in mixed martial arts in the past, in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, this became she felt at one point as though “women’s boxing looked like it might not go anywhere. ”
This is obviously not how things worked out, with women’s boxing huge right now. But Marshall agreed to terms after some considerable time spent threshing out a deal with PFL. Marshall says she feels the main reason PFL wanted to sign her was because of the big fan interest in her rivalry with Shields. And now, thanks to both ladies signing up with PFL, there is every chance we could see Shields and Marshall continue their rivalry in both boxing AND in MMA.
Shields has fought in MMA before, while Marshall says she expects her MMA debut to take place some time next year. It will be fascinating to see who manages to carve out the more successful career in MMA – Shields or Marshall. As would it be very interesting to see these two duke it out in a return fight conducted under MMA rules.
It could be that these two female champions and stars wind up having as many as three or four fights in total, maybe more. Each woman represents the other’s biggest payday, and both fighters recognise this.
Who wins if Shields and Marshall fight in MMA some time in 2024? Who can possibly say, seeing how both ladies are all but complete MMA novices? That said, the hype ahead of a Shields vs. Marshall rumble in a cage really could prove to be quite something.
Who will be able to fully adapt to MMA the best? That’s if either Shields or Marshall can actually go on and do so.