Savannah Marshall

Savannah Rose Marshall (born 19 May 1991) is a British professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held world championships in two weight classes: the undisputed and Ring magazine female super-middleweight title since 2023; and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female middleweight title from 2020 to 2022. As an amateur, she became the first British female world champion after securing gold at the 2012 World Championships.

Early life
Marshall is from Hartlepool in the North East of England. She attended the English Martyrs School, where she achieved 12 GCSEs before gaining a Distinction in a BTEC National Diploma in Sport at Hartlepool College.

She began boxing aged 12, when she joined a local Hartlepool Headland club after seeing a boy showing off his trophy on the street and decided she wanted one. She went to her local boxing club with two of her girl friends however her friends only went once and decided not to go back. The club had no girls training at this time and had constantly tried to discourage Marshall. She stated that she thinks the trainer looked at her as 'an annoying little girl who kept on coming back' but she was determined, having fallen in love with the sport. They learned to accept her and began to support her.

She sparred with the boys at her club. However, when going to other gyms to get sparring partners, it was a struggle. A head trainer of one gym pointed at Savannah and said "what's that? She is not sparring here" and Savannah had to sit and watch the session.

Amateur boxing career
Marshall became the first British female world champion by winning gold at the 2012 World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China.

She was considered a favourite to win gold at the 2012 London Olympics. However, she was defeated 16–12 by Marina Volnova of Kazakhstan in her opening, quarter-final.

Marshall remains the only boxer ever to have defeated Claressa Shields, the middleweight women's gold medallist in the 2012 Olympics; the bout took place in the second round of the 2012 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Qinhuangdao.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Marshall beat Ariane Fortin of Canada to take the gold medal in the women's middleweight division.

In May 2016, Marshall qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics, after reaching the semi-finals of the 2016 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan. She lost in the quarter-finals to Nouchka Fontijn from the Netherlands by split decision.

Professional boxing career
On 18 May 2017, during a press conference to promote the IBF junior-lightweight title defence of Mayweather promoted Gervonta Davis against former British champion Liam Walsh, Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced to the press that he had signed Marshall to a professional promotional contract. Marshall made her professional boxing debut at super-middleweight on the undercard of The Money Fight,   in the professional boxing super-fight between undefeated five-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the former UFC Lightweight Champion and Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. It took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada on 26 August 2017. She defeated Sydney LeBlanc by unanimous decision 40–36 in a four-round bout.

Marshall lifted the vacant WBA super-middleweight Inter-continental title in Sofia, Bulgaria, after winning all 10 rounds to claim a comfortable points victory over Yanina Orozco of Argentina.

On 31 October 2020, in her ninth professional fight, Marshall became the WBO female middleweight world champion with a TKO victory over Hannah Rankin at Wembley Arena.

Marshall was initially scheduled to face Claressa Shields in a title unification bout on September 10, 2022. However, due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II the bout was postponed to take place on October 15, 2022. Marshall lost the fight via unanimous decision with two judges scoring the fight 97–93 and one scoring it 96–94. This fight occurred at the O2 Arena and was the first-time two female boxers headlined at a major venue in the United Kingdom. As well, the fight headlined the first all-female boxing card in the United Kingdom.

Marshall challenged Franchón Crews-Dezurn for her undisputed super-middleweight world titles in the main event at the Manchester Arena on 1 July 2023 winning by majority decision.

Mixed martial arts career
Marshall made her MMA debut on 8 June 2024, stopping Mirela Vargas in the first round at PFL Europe in Newcastle on 8 June 2024.