Middleweight is back in action on Saturday and eyeing a world title fight with Claressa Shields, the biggest draw in women’s boxing
Boxing is a brutal business but, as a woman trying to win her first world title during the grip of a pandemic, Savannah Marshall has been tested in a way none of her male contemporaries have experienced. Even before we discuss the more personal challenges she and other female boxers face, Marshall explains how, as a middleweight, she had been preparing to fight a much bigger opponent for the world light-heavyweight title in April when the lockdown forced a costly cancellation.
She had to move up two weight divisions to get a crack at a title but she is the only woman to have beaten Claressa Shields, the world’s best female boxer, in either the amateur or professional ring. But neither that achievement nor her 8-0 record as a pro could protect Marshall from the financial loss of Covid-19. Unlike any man at the peak of
boxing, the 29-year-old from Hartlepool was forced to try and find a
Job.