Claressa Shields will once again try to unify all four major women’s middleweight world titles when she faces Savannah Marshall in the main event of an all-women card at the O2 arena in London on Saturday (ESPN+, 2:30 p.m. ET). This is the first of two major boxing cards on ESPN+ on the day. Devin Haney will defend his undisputed lightweight title against the man he took the belts from just a few months ago, George Kambosos, at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Shields (12-0, 2 KOs), 27, of Flint, Michigan, is a former middleweight and junior middleweight undisputed champion and a unified super middleweight champ. She vacated the middleweight WBO belt to move down to junior middleweight and now is trying to regain the undisputed title she never lost in the ring against Marshall.
Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs), 31, of County Durham, England, defeated Hannah Rankin in October 2020 to win the WBO belt and has made three successful defenses since. Marshall is the only fighter to have beaten Shields (a points victory at the 2012 world championships in China). Shields finished her amateur career with a record of 64-1 and is looking to avenge the lone loss.
In the co-main event, Mikaela Mayer takes on Alycia Baumgardner in a 10-round three-title unification bout between two fighters who have built up the fight with constant verbal jabs.
Mayer (17-0, 5 KOs), 32, of Woodland Hills, California, won the WBO belt against Ewa Brodnicka in October 2020. She added the IBF belt after defeating Maiva Hamadouche in November 2021.
Baumgardner (12-1, 7 KOs), 28, of Fremont, Ohio, stopped Terri Harper with an impressive third-round KO to win the WBC belt last November.
Follow along as Michael Rothstein recaps the action as it happens or watch the fights on ESPN+.
Fight in progress: Caroline Dubois vs. Milena Koleva, six rounds, lightweights
Results:
Artingstall dominates Sakharov, stays unbeaten
For the last four rounds, it was a barrage and, if we’re being honest, an impressive performance by Karriss Artingstall and a great effort by Marina Sakharov to stay up the entire fight.
It was an overall impressive performance for Artingstall, featherweight prospect, in her second pro fight, scoring a 60-54 decision over Sakharov, who has now lost 10 fights in a row.
Artingstall (2-0) took control of the fight in the third round, landing a flurry of combinations and from there the bout never really looked in doubt. By the end of the third, Sakharov (5-17-2, 3 KO) looked exhausted but continued to hang in throughout the six-round fight.
Sakharov has not won a fight since 2018, when she knocked out Branka Arambasic.
Still to come:
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Title fight: Claressa Shields vs. Savannah Marshall, 10 rounds, for Shields’ WBC, IBF and WBA middleweight titles and Marshall’s WBO middleweight title
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Title fight: Mikaela Mayer vs. Alycia Baumgardner, 10 rounds, for Mayer’s WBO and IBF junior lightweight titles and Baumgardner’s WBC junior lightweight title
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Lauren Price vs. Timea Belik, six rounds, welterweights