It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the seismic shift happened that meant fans referred to a fight between two females as ‘boxing’ as opposed to ‘women’s boxing’.
It is important to remember that boxers like Jane Couch and Christy Martin opened doors and led the way, but the fact that discussions of this summer’s biggest boxing barn burners centred around bouts between Taylor and Persoon, Harper and Jonas and Ball and Courtenay, indicate just how rapid the recent ascent has been as a consequence of these modern day pugilistic pioneers.
Super Middleweight star Savannah Marshall knows exactly the moment she felt the landscape changed, “I think the fight that really pushed it around that corner, was the Taylor Persoon fight, the first one. It was on the Anthony Joshua undercard and I just remember the standing ovation in Madison Square Garden, and I believe that, that is when it started being called ‘boxing’, not ‘female boxing’.”
Marshall, who is based in the North West and is trained by Peter Fury, hails from North East town of Hartlepool and still retains her Northeastern accent, for me it was like catching up with a family member as the linguistic nuances were a catalyst for falling back into a way of speaking that is normally reserved for visits back to the area of my upbringing. As I enquired about whether she had seen and enjoyed the recent-behind closed doors-fight cards, it became clear I was talking to a fighter who was frustrated, in a period of time that she had earmarked as her time to shine. Speaking of not being able to be involved, she conceded, “I was devastated I wasn’t part of it, my world title fight in April got cancelled two weeks prior, so for me I was like ‘come on now, I must be top of the list’.”
The frustration comes after a cancelled bout with Geovana Peres for the WBO light heavyweight title in Newcastle left the former Team GB competitor without a fight and wondering how and when she was going to be able to reschedule, especially given the restrictions on opponents from countries outside of the UK. “They tried to get the fight back on, but over in New Zealand they are more stringent. You have to enter a quarantine program the same as any other country, except you have to pay, and the expense for her team to return home meant that would have been her purse gone.”
The setbacks and the lockdown process took it’s toll as Marshall honestly admitted, “Going into lockdown I was peak fitness anyway, the first couple of weeks I just tried to stay sharp as I was told that it was postponed until June 25th. When I got the news that, that was dead in the water I just totally hit a brick wall.”
The fact that the fight with Peres was up at light heavy shows the desire that Marshall-essentially a super middleweight fighter-has, to win world titles and showing no attempt to mask her ambition of being a multi-weight champion, She added, “The fight in April was for a title at light heavyweight, which for me wasn’t ideal, I took it because it was an opportunity, an opportunity to fight for a world title.”
Attention has now turned to a new possible date, October 17th, on a Newcastle card, where she hopes to be involved in a competitive fight. Having not fought this year you could forgive the ‘Silent Assassin’ for wanting to shake off some ring rust with a tune-up, but she was having none of that sort of suggestion, “I’m 29-years-old, I’m at that point in my career where it has been very stop-start, I want to get in the mix, I don’t want to do a 10/12 week camp to have a ‘warm-up’ where I’m going to walk over them in a round, I’m through with all of that now, I want to get in the mix with them all.”
With that statement in mind, the question of finding a reputable opponent for October 17th, during the obvious obstacles that a situation like this dictates, proved difficult, but the unbeaten 29-year-old will now face Scotland's former IBO champion Hannah Rankin for the WBO middleweight title in Newcastle. “This fight in October, I’ve been asked to come down to middleweight, the only domestic fighter in and around my weight is Hannah Rankin, she is in a position similar to myself, so the fight was there and had been spoken about for the October card for a while."
The interview was in danger of reaching unheralded ground, an interview without mention of the potential of a fight with Claressa Shields, a US fighter who is seldom shy of self-promotion, but alas we could not avoid it. The impromptu head to head at The York Hall in Bethnal Green now seems very distant, but the clamour for a fight between the two is anything but, with Marshall insisting that it could be a fight to remember. “People say it is my ‘golden ticket’ but she needs the fight as much as me, she has no one left to fight, she talks about Laila Ali, who hasn’t fought for 10 years, there’s nobody left in her pool. It would be a big fight; she wants to amend that loss. I genuinely believe if the fight is built properly, that it will be the biggest fight in female boxing, when you think about it, we are the heavyweights, we’re the big girls in the boxing game.”
It is an interesting take and one that does hold credence, how often do fans express their excitement at watching the heavyweight prize-fighters, the big hitters going toe-to-toe knowing there’s that chance that detonating a huge shot can turn a fight and leave an opponent in a crumpled heap, making a scorecard an irrelevant commodity.
This year has stolen time from Marshall, time that could have seen her realise her ambition of becoming a multiple weight world champion. She acknowledges that she will not box forever, whilst still appreciating that her career has provided her with a lifestyle not afforded by all boxers. “At the start of the year I thought, four tough fights, finishing off with a big one at the end of the year and then that could be me, I could walk away from the sport a multi-weight world champion if all went well. I’ve boxed full time since I was 17, I’m quite lucky in the sense that I’ve never had to work, I’ve been very privileged that I have had the opportunity to train full time, but I am at the point in my life that I’d like to do other things.”
As I suggest that Savannah is part of a very important movement within the sport and insinuate that she is part of a lasting legacy, the ever-modest pugilist makes nothing of it, but does offer an anecdote which perfectly epitomizes the impact that today’s stars are having and further implies that the suggestion is a correct one, “I remember when I first walked through the doors and into a boxing gym, I think when I was 11, I was already around 60 kilos, I was always tall and there was a time when I went two years without fighting because there was nobody in the country. I remember going into a boxing gym in Sunderland for sparring, I was only 13, I wasn’t allowed to spar because I was a girl, I wasn’t allowed to participate. I know that now, that gym has got female national champions. Looking back now, if I was anybody else, I could have run home and thought I’m never coming back again and I’m sure that there are loads of girls that has happened to.”
The irony in the tale is that the fighter-who trains with Hughie Fury-has always sparred male fighters, right from being an amateur competitor at team GB, sparring the likes of Anthony Fowler, Callum Smith as she was often the only middleweight female representative.
Titles, belts, other tangible achievements will always take pride of place on display, and there is no doubt that the expectation is to win multiple world titles at multiple weights, but maybe Savannah Marshall’s greatest legacy will be one of encouraging the inclusivity of young girls within the sport of boxing and showing it can be done. Proving that as a female fighter, you can forge a career in a sport where, for a long time in society, the very idea would be shunned and frowned upon.