After a brief delay due to Peter Fury's positive COVID-19 test, his fighter Savannah Marshall (8-0, 6 KOs) will get her fight with Hannah Rankin (9-4, 2 KOs) with the vacant WBO middleweight title up for grabs on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk vs. Dereck Chisora on Oct. 31.
Of course, the fight week interviews featuring both fighters via Zoom saw the topic shift to Claressa Shields (10-0, 2 KOs) more than once. The 25-year-old American holds every major championship in the division except the one that will go to the winner of Marshall vs. Rankin on Halloween night.
Hartlepool's Marshall has called Shields out in the past via Twitter but didn't seem particularly pleased by the mention of the two-weight titleholder's name just days before the biggest fight of her professional career so far.
When asked if a fight against Shields was motivating her to defeat Rankin, Marshall said: "Fighting Shields doesn’t spur me on. I box who I box. It’s a business. I couldn’t really care less about Claressa, to be fair."
Back on topic, the London 2012 star said she was thankful that the Rankin fight wasn't postponed for very long.
"It hasn’t really been hard," she said, "but it’s just the way it has panned out. There’s nothing we can do about it. Thankfully Peter is alright, and the fight was rescheduled quickly.
"It was only off for a week. There hasn’t been time to think about it. There were talks of it landing on the Katie Taylor bill on Nov. 14 and I was dreading having to do another four weeks of sparring, but thankfully it’s happening on Oct. 31.
"It was mentioned, doing the fight without Peter. But I wanted him there. It’s a world title fight, you don’t want anything left to chance."
Rankin, meanwhile, who fought Shields in a losing effort back in November 2018, warned that it'd be a critical error if Marshall does indeed think about Shields for one second before the final bell on Saturday.
"I definitely think that when it comes to boxing, you should never look past your next opponent," said the Scottish fighter.
"I hope she’s underestimating me and looking at Claressa, because she won’t get past me."
Rankin's path to this fight was a stark contrast to that of her Olympian rivals, but it isn't something that bothers the 30-year-old.
She explained: "I wasn’t envious of the Olympians. It was never a route I saw myself going into.
"I came into boxing late. I was doing it for fitness and then also white-collar boxing for charity. I became a champion through hard work, dedication and developing a love for the sport.
"So I don’t really feel like I missed out on anything."
In her Zoom interview, Marshall expressed the utmost respect for Rankin's unique journey to world title contention.
"There’s a big difference between amateur and pro," said Marshall, "but I think it gives you a really solid foundation.
"Take nothing away from Hannah, though. You don’t need the amateur background because she’s a former world champion without it and she did things her way.
"I’m expecting the best out of Hannah Rankin. I expect a tough fight. She brings a lot to the table, she’s no mug. She won’t fight with her hands down."
Marshall vs. Rankin takes place on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk vs. Dereck Chisora, which airs live Oct. 31 on Sky Sports Box Office in the U.K. and DAZN in all nine DAZN markets including the U.S.