Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall traded impressions, pondered an unlikely future friendship and, ultimately, promised to handle business with one another as insults were volleyed back and forth ahead of Saturday’s historic undisputed clash at The O2.
At one point Shields offered to hand Marshall her 2012 Olympic gold medal once she beat her British foe, to which Marshall insisted she wanted the American’s ‘GWOAT’ gold necklace instead, to which Shields pointed out the necklace was not even real before also engaging in a heated exchanged with Marshall’s friend and fellow fighter April Hunter.
The pair’s pre-fight press conference was largely cordial as an ongoing war of words reached the stage of dry humour, the trigger point to any melee again proving to be Shields’ amateur defeat and the counter argument of her gold medal supremacy since then.
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“I’m better than you, I’ve been better than you since I was 17,” said Shields. “Didn’t I win the Olympics? If we’re going to talk about something 10 years ago aren’t we going to talk about the Olympics?
“I lost in 2012 [in the amateurs], two months later won the Olympics, then 2014 World Championships, you were there sweetheart – gold medal again. Then five days later back-to-back I walked through them. 2016 World Championships, we there again boo, oh my god, not Claressa getting gold again? Then the Olympics, was you there? Yes. Watching me win gold again. And you’re better than me? How? You cannot live off something 10 years ago.”
It was during Shields’ recollection of her Olympic success that Marshall jokingly urged her opponent to ‘control it’, dropping in frequent murmurs of ‘steady, steady’.
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Upon being asked if the two could be friends in another world, Marshall took the opportunity to invite Shields out for coffee before being met by a less enthusiastic response.
As the well-touted clash of styles came up in discussion, Marshall played down her counterpart’s ability to put her on the canvas as Shields had suggested she could earlier in the week.
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“I think she comes up short, I believe I’m a better boxer than Claressa and believe I always have been,” said Marshall. “Saturday couldn’t come quick enough, I’m just itching to get in there now. She can try knock me out, hurt me, if you’ve got it you’ve got it, if you haven’t you haven’t.
“You couldn’t knock Ema Kozin out, couldn’t knock Hannah Rankin out. 12-0 as a pro and you haven’t learned to finish anyone. That’s concerning, you haven’t learned.
‘You’re gonna knock me out, you’re gonna knock me out?’, you keep asking because it’s in the back of your mind, you’re petrified that I’m going to knock you out and that’s why you keep asking and keep going on and on.”
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Shields insisted she will have an answer to Marshall’s punch power, while again reiterating the idea she was the most accomplished boxer.
“Of course we’re going to talk about the punch power, she may want to fight on the inside or outside, but just to touch and land, that’s really all I see,” said Shields.
“I may get hit, but if she thinks she’s not going to get hit she’s mistaken, if she thinks she’s the better boxer she’s mistaken. I’m going to adapt and do whatever I can to win and make the fight easy.”
Marshall vowed to ‘hurt’ Shields, while Shields promised to ‘school’ and Sugar Ray Leonard’ Marshall.
More to follow…
Watch Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall meet to unify the middleweight titles live on Sky Sports from 7.30pm on Saturday.