Savannah Marshall became the undisputed women’s super middleweight champion on July 1st after facing Franchon Crews-Dezurn, who held all the titles on the night. While not storming through her opponent as expected, Marshall made history by becoming the second British female boxer to become undisputed. The match main-evented at the AO Arena in Manchester.
Savannah Marshall’s (13-1, 10 KO’s) ascent to become the undisputed champion was anything but easy. Although Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-2, 2 KO’s) had not been in the ring for over a year, which eventually showed in her fight with Marshall, Savannah Marshall did not seem to be able to take advantage of Crews-Dezurn’s ring rust and struggled to the point where the match was closer than anticipated.
Marshall was undoubtedly the favorite heading into the match, but Crews-Dezurn deserves credit for overcoming her pre-match odds despite her lack of activity over the past year. Savannah Marshall’s power, footwork, and punch variety seemed to make the difference, but the punch output of both fighters painted a different story.
Franchon Crews-Dezurn was not as accurate as she had been in prior fights, swinging and missing quite a couple of shots that could have made a difference in the fight. However, her work ethic in the ring matched that of Savannah Marshall, making for a much closer fight than anticipated.
The judges’ scorecards reflected this, with scores of 99-92, 97-93, and an even score of 95-95 somewhat accurately portraying the fight, though not perfectly. Savannah Marshall was a deserved winner, showing her grit, determination, and work ethic, which earned her all four of the major titles at super middleweight and The Ring’s lineal title, making her undisputed.
Claressa Shields (14-0, 2 KO’s), the former opponent of both Savannah Marshall and Franchon Crews-Dezurn, was also present at ringside for the fight. Her post-match confrontation with Savannah Marshall suggests that, as speculated in one of our previous articles, the 168-pound division might see the two face each other again for an undisputed vs. undisputed match-up, with Shields still being the undisputed champion at 160 lbs while Marshall is now the reigning champion at super middleweight.
The rest of the card featured other fights from well-known and/or talented British boxers. Super Middleweight prospects Zak Chelli and Mark Jeffers (both 25) went head-to-head with their undefeated records on the line. It was the latter, Jeffers, who came out on top to showcase his ability as one of Britain’s most exciting next contenders in the Super Middleweight division. Mark Jeffers won by unanimous decision.
British unified Junior Welterweight champion Natasha Jonas (14-2-1, 9 KO’s) also fought as part of the co-main event against Canadian Kandi Wyatt (11-5, 3 KO’s) and showed herself to be in perhaps the best shape and form of her life after stopping Wyatt in the 8th round to win the vacant IBF Welterweight title.
