Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall's undisputed middleweight title clash has been backed to break a Sky Sports viewing figures record.
Fierce rivals Shields and Marshall meet for all the middleweight marbles at The O2 arena in London this Saturday. The event, which is the first all-female card in boxing history, was supposed to take place on September 10 but was pushed back five weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Shields and Marshall have a rivalry dating back to their amateur careers over a decade ago when Marshall handed Shields the only loss on her otherwise flawless record.
The fight card will be free to watch for Sky Sports customers and the head of BOXXER, Ben Shalom, thinks it will break the viewership record on the platform. That accolade is currently held by Chris Eubank vs Liam Williams as their fight reeled in 1.05million views, with Shields also competing on the undercard of the event as she defended her world titles against Ema Kozin.
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"I believe this fight will break all Sky Sports viewing figures," Shalom said. "We broke records with the Eubank vs Williams fight, but we've never had a rivalry like this. When they [Shields and Marshall] turned over, they had a dream to box but they never had a dream to be superstars because it just wasn't possible. Now it is possible, they've paved the way.
"The interest in this fight, what we've seen over the past week in the numbers and the way this is tracking, both fights and the whole card. We've never seen anything like it and it's bound to break records. To do it with a women's card, that's a special moment to the sport and this is a groundbreaking moment for everyone that is involved."
Shields and Marshall's promoters clashed over their fighters' involvement in attracting a huge amount of media attention for the undisputed clash. Dmitry Salita, who promotes Shields, responded to Shalom's comments about Marshall's star power by insisting his fighter is more influential. Salita said Shields is the driving force of the fight and cited her two Olympic gold medals and numerous world titles as proof of this.
"We have a lot of respect for Savannah Marshall but just for objectivity and the truth, Claressa has been the first female athlete to do things that have never been done before and she is the driving force of this fight," Salita said. "She is the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals and is the first woman from the United States to headline on premium cable network TV."
