The eagerly anticipated clash between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall looks to be in jeopardy.
Shields and Marshall have been rivals ever since they were amateurs and a fight between the two has been building for months.
Both fighters have fought twelve times and are unbeaten during their professional careers so far.
While Shields holds the undisputed light middleweight title, Marshall has held the WBO middleweight title since 2020.
Marshall remains the only boxer to have ever defeated Shields, having defeated her at the 2012 Olympics, on course to winning the women’s middleweight gold medal.
The British fighter is keen to prove her victory was not a one-time thing, while Shields has long insisted that her defeat 10 years ago was no more than a fluke.
Marshall recovering from injury
Marshall last fought in April, where she defeated Femke Hermans via knockout to retain her WBO middleweight title.
However, in an interview with Boxing Social, Marshall recently revealed she is recovering from surgery following the contest and that the proposed fight date of July is now off the cards.
Marshall wants the fight to be rescheduled to September to give her sufficient time to recover and train, but Shields does not seem keen on the idea.
Shields returning to MMA?
Taking to Twitter, Shields criticised Marshall and teased that she’d return to competing in MMA.
“I’m not gonna sling mud with that peasant Marshall,” she wrote.
“We['re] supposed to be fighting [in] July now all this surgery bulls**t coming about. I’m getting ready for MMA. F that b*m.”
In November 2020, Shields signed a three-year contract with Professional Fighters League and has so far fought twice for the promotion.
While Shields won her first contest against Brittney Elkin, she lost the second against Abigail Montes via split decision last year.