Claressa Shields has just seen her two former opponents lock horns in the ring, but none of their performances had matched her expectations.
Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Savannah Marshall, both who have fought Shields in the past, recently squared off on July 1st at the AO Arena in Manchester, with Crews-Dezurn’s undisputed super middleweight championship at stake.
Marshall and Crews-Dezurn fought hard throughout the 10-round fight and although everyone expected Marshall to win unanimously on the cards, after a 95-95 scorecard of one judge, the final verdict was a majority decision win for the “Silent Assassin”, who is now the WBC, WBA (Super), WBO and IBF champion at 168.
Claressa Shields calls Crews-Dezurn “tough” but says Marshall will “get beat up”
Shields, who was ringside to watch her former adversaries, said that she expected a better show from both of them.
“She (Crews-Dezurn) is a tough, tough woman. I thought she came on stronger, some of the rounds were close but I felt landed the better shots,” said Marshall about Crews-Dezurn, who are each other’s first professional opponents and fought in 2016 which Shields won.
Regarding Marshall, however, the “GWOAT” stated that her most recent grudge rival has not learned anything from their October 2022 fight which Shields won, and added that she would be willing to do the rematch at any weight division Marshall wants.
“I will fight her at whatever weight she wants to fight at. She is going to get beat up… that’s what is going to happen,” Shields went on,“[I saw] a lot of weaknesses and she didn’t learn from her last fight. I agreed with the first judge who had it 95-95. The fight was close – I expected a better performance from both girls.” [H/T Boxingscene.com]
