Claressa Shields jumped up and down in the ring, having gone to the United Kingdom to fight a British fighter and still come out of the toughest bout of her career as the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. Again.
Shields beat Savannah Marshall by unanimous decision (97-93, 96-94, 96-94) in London on Saturday to become the undisputed middleweight champion for the second time after holding all four belts in 2019 and 2020 as well.
By beating Marshall, Shields also made up for the only loss of her career in boxing — Marshall defeated her as an amateur a decade ago in a fight Shields believed she won — and in doing so established herself as arguably the best woman boxer ever.
Shields’ 35 power punches landed in the first two rounds were more than Marshall had landed against her in any complete fight of her career, according to Compubox.
Shields landed 36.4% of her punches (175 of 480) compared to 34.3% for Marshall (136 of 397). Marshall landed a higher percentage of power punches (43.1% to 40.4%) but Shields landed more power punches overall (131 to 122).
“She’s a tough competitor. She’s a hard puncher. She has endurance,” Shields said. “But I’m the better fighter 10 years later.”
Shields (13-0, 1 KO) said she could not see out of her right eye in the final five rounds due to Marshall’s power — and it was in the final five rounds where Marshall (12-1, 10 KO) seemed to close the distance.
Shields said there was a rematch clause in the contract if there was a controversial decision, but Shields won a unanimous decision. She didn’t rule out fighting Marshall again in the United States if fans wanted it.
The fight headlined an all-women card that also had the junior lightweight unification fight between IBF and WBO champion Mikaela Mayer and WBC titlist Alycia Baumgardner as the co-feature.
