After Claressa Shields’s clinical dismantling of Ema Kozin in Cardiff, with 10 brutally one-sided rounds inviting awe and grimaces in equal measure, a more competitive duel erupted at ringside. Throughout the course of the fight, Savannah Marshall had sat in the front row with an expression of theatrical boredom, at one stage even pretending to fall asleep. But as the pair came face-to-face in front of the cameras, their longstanding animosity quickly ignited as a shouting match featured all the grand predictions and angry threats that form the fabric of any legacy-defining bout.
It is a tantalising prospect, and undoubtedly one of the best fights to be made in boxing. Shields is a two-time Olympic gold medallist and holds three of the recognised middleweight world titles. She is an astonishing talent, who perhaps fairly proclaims herself as the greatest female boxer in history, despite still being only 26 years old. Her only defeat as an amateur came way back in 2012, in the build-up to the London Games. It was inflicted by the harder fists of Marshall, who never achieved such distinction as an amateur but now holds the only belt out of Shields’s reach.
