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. Marshall, now 13-1(10) and having her first fight back after losing to Claressa Shields last October, prevailed by scores of 95-95, 99-92, 97-93.
36 year old Crews-Dezurn falls to 8-2(2) and the former champion has supporters who feel she did enough to keep hold of her belts last night. One of these people is Shields, who spoke with Sky Sports after last night’s fight. 28 year old Shields says she will fight Marshall “at any weight” if the newly crowned super-middleweight champion agrees to box a return fight with her in America.
“If Savannah comes to the USA, I will fight her at whatever weight she wants to fight at,” said Shields, 14-0(2) and the reigning undisputed middleweight champion. “She is going to get beat up in America, that’s what is going to happen. [I saw] a lot of weaknesses and she didn’t learn from her last fight. I agreed with the first judge who had it 95-95. The fight was close. I expected a better performance from both girls.”
Marshall, who says she is “over the moon” with last night’s win and has admitted that she was in a dark place after the defeat at the hands of Shields, says she is very much open to a rematch with the only woman to have beaten her at pro level.
“If she [Shields] wants it, let’s do it,” a victorious Marshall said. “I’m sure she’ll want to try and unify another division.”
While promoter Ben Shalom says the rematch “has to happen at 168,” as this is a weight at which Marshall is “the best fighter in the world.” Maybe. In truth, a rematch is the most obvious move for both Shields and Marshall, it’s the obvious big-money fight for both. Whether it’s in the US or the UK, we want to see it. And if Marshall managed to get her revenge, the trilogy fight would be nothing short of enormous. Women’s boxing sure is hot right now.
