Claressa Shields owes something to Savannah Marshall, in a sense.
The ferocious rivalry between the two fighters has only grown more bitter since Marshall beat Shields in the amateurs a decade ago.
Still Shields’ only defeat in a boxing ring, the loss spurred her on. From there she went on to win two Olympic gold medals, multiple professional world titles and on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, fights Marshall for the undisputed middleweight world championship.
“The loss to her put a different kind of fire in me, a fire to train harder, a fire to not leave it in the judges’ hands,” Shields told Sky Sports.
“When I got back to the gym after sulking for like a week or so, when I started back training I just pushed myself so hard, I could have damn near killed myself, how hard I ran, how hard I pushed my body. Just how much I sparred, within that two months leading up to the Olympics, I put myself through some things and it was all just to be an Olympic champ and if I fought her again, I was going to knock her out. That’s why I put in that hard work.