BN Preview: Both beaten only by Claressa Shields, Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Savannah Marshall clash at super-middleweight
SAVANNAH MARSHALL is back in the ring for the first time since her undefeated record and world middleweight title was taken by surprise by Claressa Shields in October.
But despite that decisive defeat at Gymnasium o2 on a pivotal occasion for women’s boxing, Marshall is coming back from winning all four world championship belts in the super-middleweight category.
Her opponent in Manchester this week is Franchon Crews-Dezurn, the Baltimore boxer whose only defeat also came at the hands of Shields. That night, both Crews-Dezurn and Shields made their professional debuts but it was the self-styled “GWOAT” who received the nod after four second innings at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas. That was in November 2016 and was in Andre Ward’s first win over Sergey Kovalev, which tells you how long it’s been since she last lost.
And speaking of Crews-Dezurn’s fire baptism, but she’s barely made a mistake in eight skirmishes and eight wins since. In her most recent opening match, she defeated Elin Cederroos to win the IBF and WBA titles, helping to complete the set for the 36-year-old.
Therefore, defending all four belts against Marshall is considered a fitting title spot here after the failed Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr rematch. Instead of dragging the whole show, Boxxer decided to elevate it to the main event. Smith and Eubank were originally supposed to meet again in June but the match was postponed to this date following Smith’s injury. It’s not clear for now whether they will even be up against Eubank once again linked with a match against Conor Benn.
Despite that, the main event in Manchester looks like it will be an exciting 10 rounds of two minutes between Marshall, a sluggish and unorthodox boxer, and Crews-Dezurn, who acts all-round but can rude. Although it’s the weight gainer here, Marshall is the taller of the two and Crews-Dezurn will know she has to come close to land her signature hooks to the head and body.
She may just step into something in the process, and it will be interesting to see how Marshall’s power increases at the 12 stone limit. Olympic athlete Hartlepool has finished 10 of her 12 wins at long distance but she will likely need all 10 innings here to claim a decisive point.
In another women’s card match, Marshall’s London 2012 teammate Natasha Jonas moved down to welterweight to face Canadian Kandi Wyatt for the vacant IBF title. Jonas, 39, currently holds three belts in the light-middleweight division and, like Marshall, will become a two-weight world champion there.
Wyatt has lost three of her last four, including a seventh round TKO at the hands of Jessica McCaskill in December 2021. She bounced back from that defeat to beat Kirstie Bavington in October. 3 and that seemed to be enough for her to earn a world title shot.
But she will do well to beat Jonas in fine form, who responded to a close defeat to Katie Taylor in May 2021 by winning four games. The most recent was a clear-cut win over Marie Eve Dicaire in November at Manchester Arena and this time she’ll be repeating the trick under the same roof.
Boxxer didn’t have much luck with this card’s injury as Mark Heffron withdrew from his clash with Zak Chelli, who looked set to be a true super-middleweight. Instead, Londoner Chelli will face late substitute 15-0 (4) Mark Jeffers.
Chelli, just 25, is coming back from the most remarkable win of his career: a decisive 10-round win over Anthony Sims Jr at Wembley Arena in February. He plans to break into the top 10 in the world and beating Heffron would be another feather. He is a much-loved opponent against Jeffers, who has never drawn at this level before. In fact, of his 15 games, only 4 were scheduled over 6 innings. Chelli is well positioned to give him his first failure here, and can get the job done in the long run.
Also, on the bottom card is Ben Whittaker’s second fight in four months as he pits Vladimir Belujsky in the first eight-round bout of his career. The Olympian stopped Jordan Grant for three rounds in Birmingham in May and BoxxER wasted no time getting him back after a nine-month break before that game.
Whittaker has been criticized by some for his early acting skills but you get the feeling that he wouldn’t mind at all. Nor will he change tactics for this one. Belujsky, also known as “Big Bad Vlad”, is by far the 26-year-old’s most experienced opponent and he’s covered an eight-round gap with both Jack Cullen and Karol Itauma in 2022. Hence. , the pause would be seen as a small statement for Whittaker and he should manage it.
There was also an intriguing clash for Callum Simpson, his second appearance since signing with BOXXER, who took on tough Boris Crighton for eight innings at super-middleweight. Crighton made headlines in his failure to beat Lyndon Arthur 10 rounds at light-heavyweight on an announcement day in March, and he’ll enjoy the job of making Simpson uncomfortable here.
Barnsley’s Simpson has impressed throughout his 11-0 (9) career so far but he’s never really had many comebacks. In fact, he’s racked up those 11 wins in just 24 innings, which shows he’s emerged as a puncher. So it will be interesting to see how things play out if Crighton can get to the second half of the battle and make some shots of his own. It will be a win for 26-year-old Simpson, though, but he can claim the referee’s scorecard to ensure W.
