Boxing is a brutal business but, as a woman trying to win her first world title during the grip of a pandemic, Savannah Marshall has been tested in a way none of her male contemporaries have experienced. Even before we discuss the more personal challenges she and other female boxers face, Marshall explains how, as a middleweight, she had been preparing to fight a much bigger opponent for the world light-heavyweight title in April when the lockdown forced a costly cancellation.
She had to move up two weight divisions to get a crack at a title but she is the only woman to have beaten Claressa Shields, the world’s best female boxer, in either the amateur or professional ring. But neither that achievement nor her 8-0 record as a pro could protect Marshall from the financial loss of Covid-19. Unlike any man at the peak of boxing, the 29-year-old from Hartlepool was forced to try and find a job.
“I had 500 tickets for my fight, sold the lot and then it got cancelled,” Marshall says. “I had 30 grand’s worth of tickets to refund and it took me weeks. It was a real headache. So I applied for a couple of delivery jobs, with companies like [delivery company] DPD and also applied for work at some supermarkets but I didn’t get one interview. I didn’t even get past the application process for Lidl.”
Marshall smiles, but she felt she had squandered money on her training camp. “I’d spent nearly £3,000 on sparring partners. You can find people who spar you for nothing but they go in half-heartedly. If you look after your sparring partners, and pay them, they come with more grit. They want to come back to get paid. Then you want the best food, because I want to eat everything organic, and you’re also seeing a physio two or three times a week. There’s also travelling to and from the gym so I blew over £3,000.”
Marshall has now been hit with another blow; she was due to fight Scotland’s Hannah Rankin this coming Saturday for the vacant WBO world middleweight title, but that too has been cancelled after her trainer, Peter Fury, tested positive for Covid-19.
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Given how amiable and relaxed Marshall is she surprises me when I ask if she enjoys hurting her opponents. “Yes, I do. You could say I’m a bit of a psychopath – but out of the ring I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I feel awful if I hurt people’s feelings. But, in there, something comes over me and I just want to hurt. I just want to hit.”
She laughs when I say she is the opposite of a psychopath – especially as she has just spoken so thoughtfully about the book she is reading on the slave trade. “When I don’t train I get agitated and stressed. So boxing is a way of keeping me calm or getting rid of that aggression. I can’t explain it but once I put them little gloves on I just think: ‘Kill.’”
She is so open that conversation shifts to one of women’s boxing’s taboo subjects – menstruation. As recently as the 1990s the British Boxing Board of Control argued that the menstrual cycle made women too “emotionally unstable” to fight. It needed a pioneer in Jane Couch to win a legal battle so that women could become boxers.
Marshall shakes her head. “For them to have said that seems crazy. But even now I know of men that won’t watch women boxing. I get it because who wants to see women get hurt – but you have to remember we are fighters.”
Has Marshall ever fought while on her period? “Plenty of times. It is hard but I know when I’m due on, the exact day. I know when I need to take paracetamol so I’m managing it. I’m lucky I don’t suffer that bad with hormones or stomach cramps like some of my friends who are bed-bound. But it’s tough.”
Marshall learned this lesson in 2012 when, going into the London Olympics as the world champion, she lost her first fight. “I was the No 1 seed and I got a bye to the quarters and had to win one fight for bronze. But I wasn’t mature enough. I’ve always hated the limelight. I’d travelled all over the world and I was world champion but I boxed at empty stadiums. Nobody knew who I was, really, and suddenly I could be the face of female boxing. I had people saying: ‘I’ve put £100 on you to win gold.’ I was like: ‘Woah. What if I lose?’”
Nicola Adams became British boxing’s Golden Girl, instead of Marshall, who says: “I was really close friends with Nicky and her profile went up so quick. I remember her being on TV, everybody wanting a piece of her. I thought: ‘Thank God that’s not me.’ It was only as the months went on that she’d say: ‘Look at this Rolex so-and-so gave me for free. Look at this brand-new car I got for free.’ I remember thinking: ‘I wouldn’t mind a gold Rolex and a brand-new BMW.’”
Marshall went through “a dark time between 2012 and 2016” when she lost after a controversial decision at the Rio Olympics. But Floyd Mayweather’s team had spotted her obvious talent and she made her pro debut in 2018 in Las Vegas – on the undercard to Mayweather’s exhibition against Conor McGregor. More significantly, she had the support of Mick Hennessy as her manager and Fury as her trainer. “Mick’s always there on the end of a phone,” she says. “Boxing is a business but with Mick you get that personal touch. Peter plays a really important part in my career and he said: ‘You’ve been spoilt with Mick.’ That’s true.”
Hennessy will need to pick the right time for Marshall to fight Shields again – because the American, a double Olympic gold medallist and the current world middleweight champion, is the biggest draw in women’s boxing. As the only fighter to have beaten her, Marshall is a compelling future opponent.
“I know she wants to fight me again,” Marshall says. “We’ve spoken face-to-face and, from Claressa’s point of view, I’m that last box to tick. I want the fight too. She is the name out there and will be my biggest payday. I’ve been offered the Shields fight in the past but I’m not a world champion yet so would I have got good money? No. I want to be in the best position possible before we fight.Styles makes fights and I believe I’ve got the beating of her.”
Where would she like to fight Shields? New York or Vegas? “The social club in Hartlepool would do me.”
Marshall laughs before I point out she needs to be paid what she deserves as one of the world’s best. “Exactly. Although I love the sport, it’s business. Who wants to get punched in the face for 50 grand when you can have five million?”
Such extravagant purses remain out of reach but, after so many compelling fights and intriguing storylines, it’s finally time for women boxers to be taken seriously and rewarded accordingly.
