NEW YORK –
Shadasia Green envisions facing the same version of
Savannah Marshall on Friday night who gave
Claressa Shields the most difficult fight of the five-division champion’s professional career.
England’s Marshall has not competed in boxing in two full years, not since she defeated
Franchon Crews Dezurn by majority decision in their super middleweight title unification fight in July 2023 at AO Arena in Manchester.
Marshall became women’s boxing’s undisputed 168-pound champion by beating Baltimore’s Crews Dezurn, but the two-time Olympian temporarily turned to mixed martial arts until she could secure an opportunity enticing enough to return to boxing.
Marshall, 34, signed with Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions in May, which enabled The Ring and IBF super middleweight champ to land another 168-pound title unification clash against Green, the WBO champ. Netflix will stream their 10-round showdown worldwide as part of the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano 3 undercard at Madison Square Garden.
Green, 35, considers Marshall (13-1, 10 KOs) the most formidable opponent of her six-year pro career.
“I’m expecting the best Savannah Marshall ever,” Green said during a press conference Wednesday in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. “She’s a former undisputed world champion, and that’s what we’ve trained for. So, we trained 200 percent for the best Savannah Marshall come July 11th. And you’ll see the best Shadasia Green, and we’ll put on a beautiful performance.”
The late-developing Green (15-1, 11 KOs), a former Old Dominion University point guard from Paterson, New Jersey, won her WBO belt in her last fight. She defeated Canada’s Melinda Watpool (7-1, 2 KOs) by split decision in a competitive 10-rounder on the Paul-Mike Tyson undercard November 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Green has lost only to Crews Dezurn (10-2, 2 KOs), who beat her by unanimous decision in December 2023. Crews Dezurn won the then-vacant WBC super middleweight title by edging Green 18 months ago at Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
Marshall, meanwhile, has only been beaten by Shields (16-0, 3 KOs), who won their grudge match by unanimous decision in October 2022 at O2 Arena in London.
The Hartlepool native worked hard to regain her timing while training to square off against Green. She hasn’t had a fight in MMA in over a year, either, but Marshall maintains she is ready for a bout of this magnitude after such an extensive break.
“Yeah, definitely, it’s a very, very long time,” Marshall said of her two-year layoff. “But it’s not like I’ve had two years sat on the couch. I’ve been in the gym. I’ve competed in MMA. So, I’ve been active, I’ve been fit. And yeah, it was hard coming back to boxing. … The stance, everything’s different. But look, I’ve boxed for a very long time, so muscle memory soon kicked in and I’m where I need to be.”
Marshall is a 6-1 favorite over Green, The Ring’s No. 2 contender for Marshall’s title. Crews Dezurn is The Ring’s No. 1 contender in the super middleweight division.
Netflix will start streaming this all-women’s card at 8 p.m. ET Friday in the United States and 1 a.m. BST Saturday in the United Kingdom.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.