Savannah Marshall admits she lost to Claressa Shields: 'I thought the right woman won'

Savannah Marshall was quite confident that, like in the amateurs, she'd be the one to hand Claressa Shields her first loss, but this time as a professional.

She couldn't get the job done as Shields won by unanimous decision in a back-and-forth affair to become the undisputed women's middleweight champion for the second time. The buildup was contentious between the two but Shields and Marshall showed respect after the fight. Even though she didn't get the desired result, Marshall admits she came up just a bit short.

“It was a tough fight, I dug deep, but I thought the right woman won, yeah,” Marshall told BBC 5 Live Boxing. “I thought it was close.”

It was a tale of two fights, with Shields controlling the first half of the fight, with Marshall coming on strong in the last couple of rounds. What Marshall expected coming in and what ended occurring inside the ring were two completely different things as she wound up on the losing end of the scorecards. 

“I thought — obviously, it’s different when you’re in there, but I thought I was catching her with the cleaner shots, kept catching her with the back hand at the end of the rounds,” Marshall said. “I thought she would’ve been faster. But she’s a brilliant fighter. She’s a brilliant fighter. I can’t take anything away from her. And like I said, the right woman won tonight.”