On Saturday night, as Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall dueled with destiny and one another under the famous dome of the O2 Arena, the structure reverberated in a familiar fashion – but with a curious cadence.
Not two minutes into the main event in London, Shields began to pierce Marshall’s defence with jagged hooks, grazing the volume dials in the O2 Arena along the way as those in attendance contested their own duel – some roaring on the American and others pleading with Marshall to rally. The pitch of those shouts, however, was distinct from the usual cacophony at such events. In the final round of the scheduled 10, as Marshall and Shields brutalised one another’s bodies in an attempt to put each other down and this rivalry to bed, the sound was as clear as it had been all evening: it was carried, in large part, by a sizeable segment of devoted female fans.
