Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall, who boxed as amateurs and had an incredible undisputed world title bout as professionals, are fierce rivals.
Marshall(13-1, 10KOs) has been calling for a rematch with Shields(14-0, 2KOs) a 28-year old American professional boxer even though she lost by unanimous decision. While both have established themselves as professional boxers and intend to carry on with their individual boxing careers, they have also signed with PFL, an MMA promotion.
“I’m going to be there cageside, having a look, sizing her up. I’m under no illusions why they’ve signed me. They haven’t looked at me and thought she’ll be a brilliant MMA fighter. They’ve signed me because there’s potential for me to fight Claressa in the smartcage isn’t there? That’s why they’ve signed me,” said Marshall in media reports.
She believes that in an MMA matchup against Shields, their attributes will contrast each other. “I really do. I’m interested to see how much she’s come on. I really want to see how she’s improved if she has. For anyone to switch sports takes a lot of guts, especially from what she’s achieved in her boxing career. She’s striving for greatness, isn’t she? So all the best to her and I think she’s taken her speed over to PFL so I’m sure she’ll do big things,” said Marshalls.
Marshall, 32, from England does land a hard blow, and she thinks that the little MMA gloves will make her strikes even more effective versus Shields. “Well, I’ve got to land first which is something that I didn’t do in boxing but little four-ounce gloves, they’re practically half the size. So definitely, a lot more damage to be inflicted. When you put them on and there’s nothing in them at all and you think, wow, these are dangerous,” she said.
In a MMA gym, Marshall is training hard. As of right moment, she only plans to box once more this year and to compete in an MMA tournament in the summer. Marshall says she is having fun even though mixed martial arts is something she has never done before.
“Sometimes in training, I feel good and I think yeah I’m getting it now and other times I’m getting tapped like that and I think: ‘Jesus I am terrible at this.’ It’s exciting for me because it’s new,” she added.
