Claressa Shields urged to be "sensible" after delay to Savannah Marshall bout

Claressa Shields has been urged to be “sensible” after her fight against Savannah Marshall was delayed by “four or five weeks”.

The eagerly-anticipated fight has been delayed after Marshall had a “small operation”, with Shields criticising her opponent for pushing the proposed fight date back from July.

“I’m not gonna sling mud with that peasant Marshall,” she wrote on Twitter. “We[‘re] supposed to be fighting [in] July now all this surgery bulls*t coming about. I’m getting ready for MMA. F that bm.”

Marshall’s promoter Ben Shalom has been keen to stress that the fight against Shields will happen, however.

“Savannah had to have a small operation that unexpectedly required her to need a few weeks of recovery,” he said.

“That meant, obviously, that July was too early, which means that we’ll just go back four or five weeks.

“Hopefully Claressa is going to be sensible and accept that both of them need to be fit and ready for what is the biggest fight in both of their careers and one of the biggest fights in the sport.”

Shields’s promoter, Dmitriy Salita, also revealed he was optimistic about the fight taking place.

“Shields vs Marshall is a mega fight and a mega sporting event which can raise the level of women’s sports,” he said. “I certainly hope the fight can get finalised.

“Claressa is ready, all is confirmed from our side, the ball is in Savannah’s court, and we are waiting for confirmation from her team.”

Shields, who currently holds the WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight titles, has previously accused the WBO middleweight champion of being “terrified” of the upcoming clash.

The American has fought Marshall once before, losing to the British star at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2012.

As a result, Marshall is