World champion boxer Savannah Marshall has called out superstar Claressa Shields for a rematch in Mixed Martial Arts ahead of her PFL debut next month.
Whilst MMA fighters trying their hand at boxing is nothing new, it’s certainly a rarity to see not one, but two world champion boxers making the transition themselves across the cage-ring aisle.
Yet with undisputed super-middleweight boxing champion Savannah Marshall set to make her MMA debut in just a few weeks, we could be on an unlikely path to getting one of the biggest rematches in all of women’s combat sports.
Savannah Marshall wants to rematch Claressa Shields in MMA
Boxing champion Savannah Marshall is set to enter a whole new world of combat as she prepares to make her MMA debut at PFL Europe 2: 2024 Regular Season on June 8 from the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, England.
The fan-favorite fighter is 13-1 as a professional boxer, with that one singular blemish on her record thanks dealt to her by one of the GWOATs of the sport in Claressa Shields, who herself signed for the PFL back in 2020.
Speaking via TalkSport, Marshall was asked whether or not a rematch with Shields, this time in the MMA cage instead of the boxing ring, could be part of her future strategy as she looks to become a two-sport world champion.
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“Yeah, that’s the plan – everyone’s asking about me going in the league and pushing on from there, winning belts but hopefully [I’ll] fight Claressa in the cage. That’s my goal, I want that rematch.”
Given both the competitive nature of their rivalry and the desire to earn back her only ever defeat as a professional fighter, should Marshall continue to rack up wins and titles, a rematch isn’t only a possibility, it’s inevitable.
“The thing that pushed me into this PFL deal was the fact that the boxing rematch just wasn’t happening, and I was a bit devastated that it didn’t happen straight after, it never materialized and that’s just boxing politics,” Marshall revealed in a recent interview with ESPN MMA.
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“If the PFL had come to me and said, ‘Would you be interested in signing a contract and joining the league,’ I’d have said no,” said the world champion, before sharing that the key factor in her transition from boxing to MMA was indeed the idea of a rematch with ‘T-Rex’.