Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall will finally meet for the undisputed middleweight championship Saturday at O2 Arena in London (ESPN+).
CLARESSA SHIELDS (12-0, 2 KOs) VS. SAVANNAH MARSHALL (12-0, 10 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, Oct. 15
- Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (7 p.m. BST) (main event later in show)
- Where:, O2 Arena, London
- TV/Stream: ESPN+
- Cost: $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually
- Division: Middleweight (160 pounds)
- At stake: Shields’ IBF, WBA, WBC and Marshall’s WBO titles
- Odds: Even (average of multiple outlets)
- Also on the card: Mikaela Mayer vs. Alycia Baumgardner, junior lightweights (for Mayer’s IBF, WBO and Baumgardner’s WBC titles)
- Prediction: Shields UD
- Background: Shields and Marshall were scheduled to fight on Sept. 10 but one of the biggest possible matchups in women’s boxing was postponed in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. The fighters have been on a collision course since Marshall handed a 17-year-old Shields her only defeat – amateur or professional — in the 2012 AIBA Women’s World Boxing championships. Shields went on to win two Olympic gold medals and become a three-division champion as a pro, as well as one of the faces of the sport. Both fighters are 12-0 but Shields has faced better opposition. Marshall, who failed to medal in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, won the WBO belt by stopping Hannah Rankin in 2020 and has made three successful defenses. Also on the card, Mayer (17-0, 5 KOs) and Baumgardner (12-1, 7 KOs) are fighting for three of the four major 130-pound titles.
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