Claressa Shields has slammed Savannah Marshall for "crying" about comments she made about race in the lead-up to their grudge fight.
Bitter rivals Shields and Marshall fight for the undisputed middleweight title at The O2 arena in London on Saturday night. The pair, who headline the first-ever all-female card in boxing history, have a rivalry dating back to their amateur careers over a decade ago when Marshall handed Shields the only loss on her otherwise pristine record.
The pair have been going back and forth since the fight was announced and Marshall insisted she was mostly unbothered by Shields’ goading attempts. That was until Shields involved race in her trash-talk by telling Seconds Out : “She’s a hater, she wishes she was me. She wishes she had the belts and the gold medals, but she doesn't. Marshall just wants to be me, she wishes she was black and everything. It’s just sad.”
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Marshall told Shields she was out of order for bringing up race in the interview as it shouldn’t have any importance in the build-up to the fight. The Brit insisted she was unbothered by the comments, but cited them as a reason why the American is “disliked” by some boxing fans. Shields has now responded to Marshall by accusing her of being racist whilst telling her to stop being a “crybaby”.
“Tell her to stop being a f****ng crybaby and leave it alone,” Shields said. “Shut up and stop crying about nothing. So I can say that she wants to be like me but I can say that being like me is being black? Stop the cap, it’s not about race. If I can say you want to be an undisputed champ, it’s okay.
"But if I say you want to be me, which is being black with a big butt and a big nose... if you want to talk about all of that stuff about me, then really you are being racist because you’re talking about how big my butt and nose is, but then gets mad when I say she wants to be black like me. So if you don’t want to be black like me. Why do you keep talking about my black features? So it’s not about race, but she wants to be me period and a part of being me is being black. I’m a black woman first and then I’m a boxer.”
Oddsmakers have Shields as the slight favourite heading into the grudge match with both women being beaten in 12 professional fights. Elsewhere on the all-female card, Alycia Baumgardner faces Mikaela Mayer in a super-featherweight unification fight with Olympic standouts Lauren Price, Caroline Dubois and Karriss Artingstall also competing.
