American female super middleweight Franchon Crews-Dezurn is now the unified super middleweight champion after adding the WBA title along with her WBC title. Crews previously held the WBC and WBA interim title following her December 15th win over fellow American Shadasia Green, and can now enjoy being a unified champion as the holder of the full WBA title, British 168-pounder Savannah Marshall is forced to relinquish her belt.
Savannah Marshall (13-1, 10 KO’s) first received the WBA title after defeating the then-undisputed champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (9-2, 2 KO’s) on July 1st in 2023, culminating in Marshall holding all the world titles―as well as the lineal The Ring belt―at super middleweight. However, an injury followed not long after which forced Marshall on the sidelines and resulted in the WBC title becoming vacant after she was delegated to become a champion-in-recess.
Later that year in December, Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Shadasia Green (13-1, 11 KO’s) battled over the vacant WBC title, as well as the WBA interim title that had been made available for their fight. Following Crews-Dezurn’s unanimous decision (UD) win over Green, Crews became the WBC champion and as of this week, became the unified champion of the 168 lbs decision as the WBA decided to promote her to full WBA champion.
The WBA decided to vacate Marshall’s WBA title and hand it to Crews based on the assumptions that Marshall would not be able to defend her title on time, with her recovery expected for somewhere in September or October this year. Additionally, the WBA―during correspondence with a representative with Marshall―also received wind that Marshall would participate outside of boxing, presumably due to the contract she signed with PFL last year which may see her competing in MMA following her injury.
According to the WBA’s rules1, a mandatory title defense is required for each non-heavyweight champion upon winning a WBA world title, and must be held within nine months of obtaining the title, yet Marshall’s late expected recovery and suspected plans to fight in MMA would make her unable to defend her title within a reasonable timeframe.
Savannah Marshall is now left with only the lineal The Ring title and two world titles; the WBO and IBF which may yet be discarded in the future. With Franchon Crews-Dezurn now in possession of the WBA and WBC titles, the two may yet again participate in a rematch of their July 1st bout that will also involve them unifying their titles to create the ideal scenario to host a undisputed battle in the near future.
However, given Marshall is still roughly half a year away from returning and not expected to engage full-time in boxing, there is the possibility of the rest of her titles being relinquished in the upcoming months, allowing Franchon Crews-Dezurn to re-pursue the opportunity to become undisputed depending on where―or with who―the other belts would end up.
- WBA Rule C.11. The defense period for the Non-Heavyweight Division, is within 9 months from the date the title was obtained, if against the official contender; if not the official contender, within one hundred and twenty (120) days.
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