Claressa Shields reveals secret sparring with Marshall
Claressa Shields claims she inflicted a beating on Savannah Marshall in a never-before-revealed sparring session that lit their rivalry alight.
Marshall returns to the ring on Saturday in Newcastle, live on Sky Sports, knowing victory will propel her closer to the biggest women’s boxing match of all time against the feted Shields.
Their history dates back to 2012 when Marshall won an amateur bout between them – it is the only fight, amateur or pro, that Shields has ever lost in a career of stunning achievement.
They are now both signed to Sky Sports Boxing and BOXXER in a commitment to deliver a grudge match which would become the pinnacle of female fights.
Shields has now revealed details for the first time about a sparring session four years later, in the build-up to the 2016 Olympics, where she exacted a measure of revenge on Marshall.
“I whupped her ass,” Shields tells Sky Sports. “I made her face as orange as my hair!
Shields had won Olympic gold in 2012 as a 17-year-old then, after this tale of sparring Marshall, sensationally repeated the feat at the 2016 Games.
Marshall represented Team GB at both of those Olympics.
Since turning pro, Marshall now owns the WBO middleweight title while Shields is a three-division champion and a two-division undisputed champion.
But she is animated when recalling training at the US Olympic training centre in Colorado with her British rival in the same gym.
“She’s the only person to beat me so, if we get in the ring for sparring, she’s supposed to show that, even though I’m the Olympic gold medallist, she’s better,” Shields says.
“She has not been better than me since I was 17. I am now 26.
“That’s why she hasn’t accomplished what I have accomplished.
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“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’.