Undisputed – Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall will finally settle rivalry in September
WBC, WBA, IBF middleweight champion Claressa Shields (12-0, 2KO) and WBO middleweight queen Savannah Marshall (12-0, 10KO) will face off for the undisputed crown on Saturday, September 10.
The world championship co-feature, which will be formally announced today, Tuesday July 5, will add to an already historic event.
IBF and WBO champ Mikaela Mayer (17-0, KO) and WBC and IBO titlist Alycia Baumgardner (12-1, KO) will clash for the unified super-featherweight crown on the same card, which is expected to feature an all-female cast.
Their acrimonious history dates back to 2012 when Marshall won an amateur bout against 17-year-old Shields, which is the only fight, amateur or pro, the American has ever lost in a career of stunning achievement.
That's where the infamous rivalry begun, but it has since become very bitter and spiteful, with the warring pair arguing incessantly over a sparring session that happened in 2016.
Shields revealed her side of the story about the spar in the build-up to the 2016 Olympics, where she claims to have exacted a measure of revenge over her sole conqueror Marshall.
'T-Rex' told Sky Sports, "I whupped her ass, I made her face as orange as my hair! "She doesn't speak about that. She knows. Ask her about it."
27 from Flint, Michigan, the two-time undisputed champion went into further detail, "The sparring session was simple. I had my hands down the entire time. She could not land a punch on me. I had her face as orange as this hair by the time we were done.
"We were supposed to do two rounds, then switch. But I told the coach: 'No. Let her stay here and take this whupping for four rounds. I don't want to switch'. I pulverised her for four rounds."
31-year-old Marshall laughed off the report when Sky Sports ask for her side of this story, "When has Claressa ever battered anyone? There is your answer," she responded.
"We went on a two-week training camp to Colorado – Team GB and Team USA," Savannah Rose Marshall explained.
"The first week? She'd hurt her back. The second week? She hurt her toe. The last day? She was good enough to spar.
"She threw about 10 shots in the whole four rounds and that was it. Can you batter someone with just 10 shots? I'm surprised she hasn't said that I was on the canvas!"
However, double Olympic chanmpion Shields stuck to her guns and even said that Nicola Adams, Marshall's British team-mate who also won Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016, was in attendance for the spar, as well as gym-mates Shakur Stevenson and Charles Conwell.
"They said: 'Dang, is that the girl who beat you when you were 17?'
"'Yup'.
"'She can't do nothing with you now'.
"Everybody in the gym said that."
In just over two months time, the world will finally get the answer they crave when these two unbeaten talented females finally share the ring together for a second time to settle the rivalry once and for all.
The September 10 BOXXER event is rumoured to make history as an all-female cast, which could also include the referee, judges and officials. The announcement will be made later today.
