Savannah Marshall beat Claressa Shields in the amateurs and is convinced she can win again in the pros
'Silent Assassin' targets World title showdown with amateur foe
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.