Shields and Marshall High Noon!

The fight between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall for the undisputed middleweight championship will take place on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London.

Today both warriors were present at a press conference to announce this eagerly-awaited fight.

Shields (12-0, 2 KOs), who holds the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association, and International Boxing Federation titles, will fight for the second consecutive time in the United Kingdom, after defeating Ema Kozin by unanimous decision in February.

Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs), a World Boxing Organization champion, last fought in April, knocking out Femke Hermans in the third round.

Shields and Marshall have spoken publicly about wanting to face each other for years. Marshall defeated Shields as an amateur, giving Shields her only loss as a boxer in an amateur championship in 2012.

This was some of what the champions declared:

Claressa Shields: “I don’t hate nobody but I really do have a huge dislike for her. My grandmother told me not to use the word hate so I won’t use it, but I don’t like Savannah and she’s one of my biggest haters. They’re saying she’s a big knockout puncher, she’s the only blemish on my record as an amateur, that she has the recipe to beat me. My job is to show that she doesn’t and that I don’t reign supreme in three different weight classes for no reason. If she was better than me, she’d be the one supreme in three different weight classes, not me.”

Savannah Marshall: “I’m actually a fan of Claressa Shields, she’s a pioneer and what she has done for the sport has been amazing. But the reality is, she doesn’t beat me. She didn’t before and she won’t again. And it kills her, it absolutely burns her inside, the fact that I beat her and I’ll beat her again. I’m not just going to beat her, I’m going to outbox her. I’m going to hurt her. This fight has been a long time coming but we’re here now and September 10 I will be the new middleweight champion of the world.”