SAVANNAH MARSHALL knows she is in for a hard night’s work against Franchon Crews-Dezurn on Saturday night.
The 32-year-old Brit challenges the American for all four of her super-middleweight belts at the AO Arena in Manchester. Their bout replaces the original main event which was to be the rematch between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr. Their fight got postponed for a second time due to an ongoing injury of Smith’s.
Facing Crews-Dezurn 8-1 (2) will represent the second consecutive opportunity for Marshall to hold all the belts in one division. In her last fight ‘The Silent Assassin’ came up short in an enthralling encounter against Claressa Shields at middleweight last October. On Saturday Marshall steps one weight division for another shot at glory.
Speaking to Sky Sports Marshall 12-1 (10) explained what type of fight she expects and what her opponent’s strengths are.
“I know that there’ll be points where I won’t be able to keep her off with the jab. I won’t be able to keep her at bay the whole fight. So, there will be times in the fight where I’ll have to dig deep and go toe-to-toe.
“She’s very smart. Very smart in what she does and like I said she’s physical,” Marshall continued.
“She’ll have you on the floor, she’ll rough you up. She’ll punch you in the back of the head, she’s that sort of fighter.
“Anyone who’s a fighter knows those type of fighters that are novicey, and inexperienced are the worst kind because they’re unpredictable and that’s what she is.
“She likes to throw people off, she likes to maul people, manhandle them. So, I see this being a very physical fight.”
Defeat for Marshall would put her career in a tough spot. Two back-to-back defeats in the biggest fights of her career opens a can of questions that would be difficult for any fighter to answer. Marshall lost her WBO middleweight strap against Shields and wants nothing more than the feeling of being a champion once again.
“If I can’t mix it at this level, what good am I in boxing?” she said “I have hard camps, I have hard sparring, how can I go from being a world champion to boxing eight rounders again, to boxing foreigners that have just been brought in for a loss?
“I’m not about that. I want to be a champion again.”
