Despite the bout between titleless Savannah Marshall and women’s Super Middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn being for undisputed, the fight is far from evenly-matched given the abilities of both fighters. Though an undisputed bout would normally be considered great for boxing, this particular match seems to be as unbalanced as the previous undisputed fight at Super Middleweight that saw Crews-Dezurn become undisputed champion.
American 168-lbser Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-1, 2 KO’s) is deservedly an undisputed champion but her rise to that position seems to have overshadowed the reality of the women’s Super Middleweight division. The 168-pound women’s division has been noticeably devoid of genuine talent and competition, allowing Crews-Dezurn to become undisputed despite a only fighting once every thirteen months in the past two years.
Her last opponent, Elin Cederroos (8-2, 4 KO’s), had even been less active, being out of the ring for two years before facing Crews in 2022 for all the available titles at that weight. Both fighters seem to have dodged a bullet by keeping their world titles during a lengthy period of inactivity; showing again a clear inconsistency of governing body rules given the IBF (whose title Cederroos possessed prior to facing Crew) stripped Joseph Cordina for pulling out of a mandated fight due to an injury.
Logically, the same strictness should have applied to Swedish fighter Elin Cederroos but the IBF never felt bothered to strip Cederroos despite for not fighting for over two years, regardless of her reasons.
Franchon Crews-Dezurn seems to have benefitted from the governing bodies’ incompetence or aloofness. Following one of the most exciting women’s bouts of the year in 2020 against Alejandra Jimenez that ended in a no-contest following failed drug tests from Jimenez, Crews went from being one of the most active fighters (fighting once every 6-8 months) to periods of being out of the ring for over a year.
Though she did fight barely within a year following Jimenez when she faced Ashleigh Curry in January of 2021 as she did with Jimenez in January of 2020, Crews subsequently stayed inactive for at least 13 months from 2021 to 2022 before facing Elin Cederroos. Following her fight with Cederroos, the undisputed champion again remained inactive for a period of almost 13 months from April of 2022 until her upcoming fight with Savannah Marshall come July 1st.
During their periods of inactivity, the women’s Super Middleweight division never seemed to truly move in any significant direction with none of the other contenders in the division impressing themselves. When observing the other fighters in the division, there is a clear void in talent as evident by the resumes of several of these contenders.
For example, American fighter Sonja Dreiling (6-3, 2 KO’s), the #4 rated female Super Middleweight in the world according to BoxRec, has had only two fights, both against fellow American Jordanne Garcia (4-2-3, 0 KO’s) who she defeated both times. Dreiling’s last match was coincidentally against the same Garcia who had noticeably not been active for roughly 3 years before facing Dreiling in their rematch.
The #5 best women’s Super Middleweight (according to BoxRec) is South African Wendy Gcado (2-0, 0 KO’s) who has had only two fights in the division against local non-world-ranked fighters.
The rest of the available fighters show similar underwhelming resumes or bouts of inactivity which paints a grim picture of the state of the division, with only #2 rated Shadasia Green (12-0, 11 KO’s) exemplifying the best of what the division has to offer due to her activity and resume.
Savannah Marshall now steps into a noncompetitive division against an opponent in Franchon Crews who hasn’t been thoroughly tested or active, which likely prompted BoxRec to rank Marshall as the #1 contender when she announced her move to the division, considering her impressive resume, ability in the ring and activity over the past couple of years; and most importantly, the overall lack of competitiveness in the division that would make Marshall an instant favorite against any of the female Super Middleweights still active.
With Claressa Shields (14-0, 2 KO’s) set to attend the undisputed match between Marshall, the bout does set the stage for favorite Savannah Marshall to face Claressa Shields once she wins against Crews. Given Shields beat Marshall last time around in October of 2022, a rematch (if Marshall ends up the winner come July 1st) between the two at Super Middleweight would be by far the best match to ever occur in the division for more reasons than one.
There is also the slight chance of Franchon Crews-Dezurn coming out on top against Marshall to defend her titles against Claressa Shields. The two have a history being that they both debuted against each other in a match where Shields ended up the winner. It would be a significant storyline for them to again face each other with all the available world titles on the line.
Either way, the winner of the upcoming July 1st bout will likely be nowhere near as relevant as when the winner will potentially face Claressa Shields who is arguably the best female fighter in the modern era. Marshall and Crews-Dezurn have also faced each other in the amateurs in a match that Marshall ended up winning, thus at least making a rather unevenly-matched fight more interesting.
