Shields and Marshall lead historic night of UK women’s boxing

Twenty-four years ago, in August 1998, women’s boxing was still banned in Britain. It was only in the middle of that month that, finally, Jane Couch became the first woman to be granted a licence to fight professionally by the British Boxing Board of Control. Couch had been forced to take the board to the high court where she won her case after male administrators tried to argue that women were too “emotionally unstable” and “frail” to become boxers.

On Saturday night, at the O2 in London, a different kind of history will be made as the first-ever all-female UK boxing card features 11 bouts and 22 women fighters. Claressa Shields, from America, and Britain’s Savannah Marshall will become the first women to headline a boxing promotion at the O2. Even more powerfully, their fight has the ingredients of a compelling contest which could echo some of the most intense and fierce rivalries between great male boxers.

Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have already produced a potential fight of the year, when they waged a ferocious and skilful battle while becoming the first women to headline Madison Square Garden in May, and this bout could approach those heights. Shields and Marshall both have 12-0 professional records and, between them, they hold all four world middleweight titles. The American owns three of those belts but the only blemish on her long and distinguished career as a boxer, as a two-time Olympic champion, happened in 2012 when Marshall beat her at the amateur world championships in China.

Shields had just turned 17 and Marshall was less than a week from her 21st birthday. The difference in age, height and reach was decisive then – even if Shields believed she was unlucky to lose. She set about making amends and,