Claressa Shields Shreds Savannah Marshall: She Lives Off That Amateur Win

Unified junior middleweight/middleweight world champion Claressa Shields is lashing out at her amateur rival, Savannah Marshall.

Shields generated plenty of headlines earlier this week, when it was revealed that she signed an agreement with MMA promotional company PFL [Professional Fighters League].

While Shields will make her MMA debut in 2021, she is not planning to walk away from the sport of boxing.

Marshall, who holds the WBO middleweight title and defeated Shields in the amateurs, has accused her American rival of avoiding a rematch in the pros.

Shields, a three division champion and two-time Olympic gold medal winner, believes Marshall has used that amateur win as the main accomplishment of her career.

"What annoys me is that Savannah lives off this. What are her accomplishments besides this? Nothing. She went to the Olympics, she didn't medal. She went to the world championships and stood on the podium below me," Shields told Sky Sports.

"In the amateurs, I was 77 wins and one loss. I won two world championships and two Olympics. Savannah was at every tournament that I won. Every girl that beat her, I smoked them. Savannah never won a medal.

"I was 17. I have footage and it looks like I won the fight. I got her in the corner but the referee broke us up and put us back in the centre which was to her advantage because she was taller and longer. She beat me on 'score points' 14-8. Big whoop! She landed six more punches than me, supposedly! She had a welt on her eye. It was a loss. I won't say I was robbed. Savannah isn't a better fighter than me, and that's been proven.

"It is so sad for her that she wanted to wait for my belt to become vacant, rather than fight me for it. That's so soft. She could have fought for all the belts at 160lbs to show how tough she really is. Savannah's coach Peter Fury said she's too strong for me? Shut up, shut up! Savannah hasn't been challenged enough yet for her to even be saying my name. But if she wants to come see me? Then come see me. I'll shut her and her team up because they do too much talking for me!"