Britain’s WBO middleweight champion Savannah Marshall says rival Claressa Shields “lost her head and fell apart” during a heated confrontation in Cardiff on Saturday.
The two fighters were separated by security during Shields’ post-fight interview after the American retained her WBA, WBC, IBF and Ring magazine titles against Slovenian Ema Kozin.
“Claressa said she’s not afraid of me and I thought ‘we’re not 10, we’re not in the playground’,” Marshall, 30, told BBC Sport.
“You can’t go on like that all week, calling yourself the greatest, totally slandering me on Twitter and in interviews and then perform like that.”
Marshall has won all 11 professional bouts – with nine knockouts – since turning professional in 2017 and will face mandatory challenger Femke Hermans on 12 March, knowing a win against the Belgian will set up an undisputed clash against Shields later in the summer.
Shields, 26, is a double Olympic gold medallist and two-weight undisputed champion and was fighting for the first time as a professional in the UK.
Despite Shields’ dominant 10-round points win over Kozin, Marshall was not impressed by her fellow champion’s performance and was seen yawning to the cameras during the TV broadcast.
“I was just expressing what everyone else was thinking,” Marshall says.
“Taking nothing away from Ema, who will come again, but from rounds seven to 10 she didn’t throw a punch and just stood there, and Claressa still couldn’t put her away.”
‘She can call me the GWOAT when I beat her’
When Shields was being interviewed ringside following the victory, Marshall joined her and the two shared a fist bump before beginning to trade words, obliging security to intervene.
“Us coming together took took her quite by surprise and I think she just totally lost her head and fell apart,” Marshall says.
“What did she expect? She went for a fist bump. Did she expect us to hug? That world doesn’t work like that after the way she behaved.”
Shields has won all 11 professional bouts and her only loss in a 77-fight amateur career came to Marshall at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in 2012.
Their rivalry intensified in the professional ranks, particularly when Marshall won a world title vacated by Shields in October 2020.
“The way she calls herself the ‘Greatest Woman of All Time’ just makes me cringe and itch,” Marshall adds.
“She can call herself what she wants but that title is for others to call you. If I called myself that in front of family and friends they’d probably give me a slap and give my head a wobble.
“I’ll never call myself the GWOAT but when I beat her she can call me that.”
