Boxing superstar Claressa “G.W.O.A.T.” Shields held a media workout in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area on Thursday as she nears her upcoming undisputed middleweight world championship showdown against longtime rival Savannah Marshall.
Shields vs. Marshall will take place on Saturday, September 10 from The O2, London and be available on ESPN+ for audiences in the U.S. Shields will bring the WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles into the showdown against Marshall and her WBO strap.
Shields will look to avenge the only loss of her amateur career and end a long war of words with Marshall that has reached a boil in recent years and which stems from Marshall’s points victory over Shields in a 2012 amateur bout.
Here is what Shields had to say Thursday from Square Off Boxing & Fitness:
Photos: Lester Silva/Salita Promotions
On how she feels in training a month away from fight night…
“My body feels good and looks good too. I’m in great spirits. Everybody keeps asking me about my nerves. Sadly, I don’t have any nerves before any fight. I’m super excited to fight. I don’t know why, but I just enjoy it.
“Training camp is really the hardest part leading up to the fight. People say that the fight is going to be the hardest part, and I just don’t believe that the fight will be harder than me putting in three different training sessions per day with four miles of sprints and then me coming to the gym and doing the second session. I don’t believe that one night and a 10-round fight with Savannah Marshall, or any other woman, would be harder than my training.”
On the rivalry with Marshall…
“I don’t know if I dislike (Marshall) more, or was it Christina Hammer? I don’t know. I know both of them are just idiots. Savannah Marshall, she says some of the dumbest things… She said if she walked around calling herself the G.W.O.A.T. that her friends would slap her. As they should… You have one belt. Please don’t call yourself the G.W.O.A.T. Please don’t. The only people who I think have any right to call themselves the G.W.O.A.T. is Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Everyone else, zip it. Savannah Marshall, zip it. You’ve been pro for five years and only have one belt. Of course, your friends should slap you. I should slap you for you talking about wanting to be the G.W.O.A.T., or you’re the G.W.O.A.T. because you beat me 10 years ago.”
To those that are doubting her in this fight…
“To all of you that are doubting me, just make sure you apologize after the fight. Say, ‘We were wrong.’ You don’t have to say you’re the G.W.O.A.T. Just say, ‘We were wrong, you’re the best and we respect you.’ And that you respect my hard work and my accomplishments because (Marshall) was the fluke. Her beating me in 2012 before the Olympics was the fluke of her career. That was her biggest achievement. After that, downhill. It wasn’t a fluke that I won the 2012 Olympics because I won it again, and I won the world championships three times after that. So, she was the fluke, and she’s still a fluke because she’s knocked out a whole bunch of bums.”
On Marshall’s power…
“This whole talk is overblown. A lot of people don’t really realize how many haters I have. I’m one of the most sought-after women boxers and people pay a lot of attention to me, but I have a lot of haters because of how great I am. It’s kind of like I’m Floyd Mayweather, but in a woman’s body, you know.
“So, they want me to lose and they’re going to say anything to make her feel like she’s better. I mean look, I accept her knockout because they’re there. She’s 12-0 with 10 knockouts, but go and look at those girls’ records and then tell me whether she should be knocking them out, or not. And you’re going to say, ‘Yea, you should be knocking out somebody that’s 4-25. You should be knocking out somebody that’s 11-75.’ Plus, you’re fighting them on three days’ notice, a week’s notice. You’re supposed to knock girls out like that.”
On the importance of this fight…
“It’s important to win every fight. (Marshall) doesn’t hold a special place in my heart to where I want to beat her more than I want to beat anyone else in my life. No, that’s not it. I think that people that I think too highly of her. I think she’s a good fighter. I think she’s a big girl for the weight class. But she’s not as skilled as me. She’s not as smart as me, and she doesn’t know how to adjust. That’s what we’re going to see on September 10.”
