Savannah Marshall
is convinced that she would make it two wins from two fights against
Claressa Shields if the former amateur rivals were to meet again in the
professional ranks.
Undefeated Hartlepool sensation Marshall, trained by Peter Fury, makes
her highly-anticipated Matchroom Boxing debut this Saturday when she
takes on Brazil’s Daniele Basteri over eight rounds in a
Super-Middleweight contest, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
The 28-year-old ‘Silent Assassin’ remains the only boxer to have
inflicted a ring defeat on undisputed Middleweight World Champion
Shields. Marshall outpointed the US golden girl in China on route to
cementing herself as Britain’s first ever female amateur World Champion
in 2012.
She was last seen demolishing tough Bulgarian Borislava Goranova in one
round at Victoria Warehouse in May and believes her link up with Eddie
Hearn’s promotional outfit will provide her with the perfect platform to
secure a mega fight will long-term rival Shields.
“I’ve been pro now for just gone two years and it has been quite slow in
the sense that I haven’t moved forward as quickly as I would have
hoped,” admitted Marshall. “Matchroom are the biggest
promotional company in the game, they have shows all the time so for
that reason the fights are there for me.
“I’m in this sport to become a World Champion. I’m not the type of
person to do something half-heartedly. I’ve been boxing since I was 11
years old and if I didn’t feel like I was at world level then there
would be no point in me being here.
“Claressa is the undisputed Middleweight Champion so in that aspect she
is ahead of me. I believe that fight will happen soon and that I will
beat her again, like I did as an amateur. I think I’m twice the fighter
now than I was when we last fought, so it makes no difference to me
where the fight takes place, I’ll beat her again.
“I had almost 100 amateur bouts and I’ve come up against all sizes and
styles of opponents. I’ve boxed all over the world so there’s not that
many styles I haven’t come across. I just want to show the world what I
am capable of and what I can do. You can expect to see a bit of
everything from me on Saturday, I will win in good fashion.”
Marshall vs. Basteri features on a huge night of boxing in the Capital.
At the top of the bill, Olympic Champions Vasiliy Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) and Luke Campbell (20-2, 16 KOs) will clash for the WBC, WBA, WBO and Ring Magazine Lightweight World titles, Manchester Heavyweight Hughie Fury (23-2, 13 KOs) takes on former WBA World Champion Alexander Povetkin (34-2, 24 KOs), WBC Flyweight ruler Charlie Edwards (15-1, 6 KOs) makes the second defence of his crown against Mandatory Challenger Julio Cesar Martinez (14-1, 11 KOs), Joe Cordina (9-0, 7 KOs) defends his British and Commonwealth Lightweight titles against Gavin Gwynne (11-0, 1 KO) in a mouth-watering battle of Wales, rising Light-Heavy star Joshua Buatsi (11-0, 9 KOs) defends his WBA International title against Canada’s Ryan Ford (16-4, 11 KOs), James Tennyson (24-3, 20 KOs) and Atif Shafiq (21-2, 5 KOs) meet for the vacant WBA International Lightweight title, Sheffield amateur standout Dalton Smith (2-0, 1 KO) takes part in his first six round contest and Hull Super-Featherweight prospect Connor Coghill (5-0) lands a dream slot on his former manager’s (Campbell) undercard.
