Claressa Shields has criticized Savannah Marshall for “crying” over comments she made about race in the lead up to their grudge match.
Fierce rivals Shields and Marshall battle for the undisputed middleweight title at The O2 in London on Saturday night. Headlining the first all-female card in boxing history, the pair have a rivalry that dates back to their amateur careers more than a decade ago, when Marshall handed Shields the only loss in his unblemished record.
The pair have been going back and forth since the fight was announced and Marshall insisted that the attempts to goad Shields mostly didn’t bother her. That is until Shields involved race in her trash talk by telling Seconds Out, “She hates, she wishes she was me. She wishes she had the belts and the gold medals, but she doesn’t. Marshall just wants to be me, she wishes she was black and all. she is alone
sad.”
Marshall told Shields that it was out of character for him to mention race in the interview, as it should have no bearing on the buildup to the fight. The Briton insisted her comments didn’t bother her, but she cited them as a reason why some boxing fans “don’t like” the American. Shields has now fired back at Marshall by accusing her of being a racist while she tells him to stop being a “crybaby”.
“Tell her to stop being a fucking crybaby and to leave you alone,” Shields said. “Shut up and stop crying over nothing. So can I say that she wants to be like me but can I say that being like me is being black? Stop the cap, she’s not about race. If I can tell you want to be an undisputed champion, she’s fine.
“But if I say you want to be me, which is being black with a big butt and a big nose… if you want to talk about all those things about me, then you’re really being racist because you’re talking about how big my butt and nose are, but then she gets mad when I tell her she wants to be black like me. So if you don’t want to be black like me. Why do you keep talking about my black features? So it’s not about race but she wants to be me period and part of being me is being black. I am a black woman first and a boxer second.”
Oddsmakers have Shields as the small favorite heading into the grudge match with both women having lost in 12 professional fights. Elsewhere on the women’s card, Alycia Baumgardner takes on Mikaela Mayer in a super featherweight unification bout with Olympian standouts Lauren Price, Caroline Dubois and Karriss Artingstall also competing.